Contagion
by Chris000
Summary: In the depths of space, locked away, are secrets that are cursed to stay. In the light of the sun, a dark shadow lies, the hallways filled with the ancient ones' cries. Come in if you might, if you must wonder why, but prepare to fight, for it is likely you'll die. Chaos Chronicles Universe story, featuring Sally Acorn on her darkest journey yet. Thanks for the idea Zeiram!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** **The following story contains characters and events that have had prior appearances in other works of the Chaos Chronicles. Characters may have had experiences explored in other stories, so they will be explained as best as they can be. Questions are appreciated and I will be glad to answer.**

* * *

 **Contagion**

CRV

March 15, 3240, 1140 hours  
Castle Acorn  
Kingdom of Acorn, Mobius  
EUS-0

Though the sun was out and the sky was clear that morning, the chill of winter had not begun to recede. Stubborn patches of snow still sat on the ground, gathering up to their greatest concentrations generally located within the lees of rocks, trees, and buildings. The trees were still bare, gently oscillating in the wind and refused to bear buds that were fated to become verdant leaves. However, despite the grey visage, birds had begun to sing again. The most daring of these species have returned to the area from the gulf to the south to begin their lives in the warmth once again. It was all part of the great circle of life that had eternally been spinning and would continue to spin long into eternity.

Sally Acorn watched the barest hints of clouds twist in the sky from her bedroom. Through the glass, she could see this slow metamorphosis as band became wisp and from there scattered in the azure late morning blue. In her hands was a steaming cup of coffee. She nursed it between her hands, and even within the castle, she felt cold. She realized that this was not always because of the weather. It was because of the bigger picture and the part she had in it. It was perhaps a small nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that there was something on the horizon coming that she wasn't ready for.

She took a sip of the coffee and immediately closed her eyes in appreciation. She had brewed it perfectly. She did not like the instant cartridges that many people used to make this liquid. She had always been brought up to appreciate the drink. As such, she brewed it manually, just as it had been done in the old days. Sure, perhaps it took longer to bring to a boil, but she swore that there was in fact a notable difference in quality. That was all she needed to hear, and she took another small pull on the mug.

She sighed. It was perfect. It could not have been better.

No. That was a lie. It could be better.

Her hand had slowly moved down to her abdomen. She was barely aware of the motion as she did so. Her hand came to rest and even though she couldn't feel it under her clothing, she imagined the thin but otherwise invisible scar only four months old. She closed her eyes and brought the memory back into her mind. She thought of that night and she thought of the ray of joy in her life that came in the form of her little Frederic. It was when she held him for the first time that she realized that life was beautiful once more. When she opened her eyes, it was as if her little one was with her, and she felt calm, collected, and happy.

However, Frederic was not with her, but with a trusted handmaiden who would raise him in her stead. It had been a hard decision to make, to have another woman be in her little one's life, but it was something that she had made a final decision on. She needed to do this. She needed to be out there. She needed to see this final mission through to the end. To leave it would be to leave her world and countless others to its fate, to the fate of an unknowable _thing_ out there that thought nothing for Existence and all who simply were within. Some would call her decision selfish. She thought it would be selfish not to fight.

She spent time to think about it. She thought about the Prisoner; the first time in two weeks that her mind had wandered to that thing. Thoughts formed in her mind over the possibilities of its existence. Though in thinking about this, she thought about her Human.

She set the cup down on the windowsill a bit quicker than she had intended. The porcelain cup clicked loudly off the marble. No. This was not what she wanted. Nine months. It had been nine months since she had lost her Human. The one she decided to name her mate, and what was more, was the father of her child. But she couldn't let the loss keep creeping into her head. He deserved better. She had to try and move on.

So she looked back out the window, attempting to lose herself in the buildings that made up Knothole to the south of the castle. She imagined people going to work, driving on the cobbled streets laid down centuries before, singing and laughing in the squares. All of these were good thoughts. Good thoughts indeed. After a few minutes she could swear she could even hear people talking in happy conversation and just living their lives. And why wouldn't they? They were free from the shadow of Julian Kintobor ever returning again.

There was a knock at her door as she was about to take another sip. She rose from the chair she had been sitting in and made her way across the room, gently running her hands across a counter-top which had photographs of all her friends in fittings and frames. She glanced at them and a smile flickered across her face. She reached the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open. Outside was a simple porter of the castle, an older canine with grey hairs flecking his muzzle.

"Highness, I'm sorry to disturb you." the man's low and gravelly voice said.

"Not at all Winston. What's up? What can I help you with?"

"I would pass a message along to you, your grace. You have a visitor that wishes an audience."

"Oh?" Sally asked, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She crossed her arms and subconsciously began to tap her foot. "And who would that be?"

"Vice Admiral Gerome Tyler Andsworth."

Sally caught herself, dropped her arms, and said, "I'll be down there in ten minutes. Let him know for me, would you Winston?"

"Naturally, Highness. I'll do it right away."

"Thanks, Winston!" Sally said, closing the door behind her.

* * *

When Sally walked into the Great Hall to meet the man who stood in the middle of the court, she had changed her dress completely. Before, she had been swathed in a turtleneck and loose-fitting woolen pants. Now, she had donned a pair of jeans, sky blue T-shirt, hardened leather boots, and an equally azure-colored vest.

Andsworth stood facing away from her and looking at the architecture of the castle, constantly impressed by the Gothic style the ancient builders of this place threw together the Dark Age of the Kingdom's history. He heard her approaching eventually though and turned around. Gerome Andsworth was as immaculate as ever in his pressed-off-white uniform, ribbons glistening on his heart-side breast, shoes shining with polish, and cap held firmly in his hands. He was and always would be to her, a man who took his job seriously, but never threw aside the minutia of actually having a soul. The Human spoke, letting his sonorous Texan accent fill the hall, his baritone fitting his form.

"Ah, good afternoon, Highness."

"Admiral." Sally nodded, smiling warmly. She was genuinely happy to see Andsworth; she always was. "How are you doing?"

"Excellent. Just excellent." he nodded. "Being at the bridge of a ship suits me just fine. No more rinky-dink assignments from those we would rather be rid of."

He spoke of course, of Troy Marshall, a man who had come to power in the UEG as an act of revenge, to steer the Human government towards a goal that only he could see the end of. He had lied, cheated, and killed to stay in power. He had killed many, and some she cared very deeply about, either by his own hand or by proxy. It had been nine months since he had been removed by a joint effort between the UNSC, private military contractors, and an RAF unit, the STARs.

"Sometimes we need to forget about people like that." She advised.

"You're talking sense, of course." Andsworth nodded. "However, I don't think you expected me to only talk about how the _Indomitable_ 's cruising. We're scheduled for a four week peacekeeping run of the Alpha Centauri system. Getting reports of insurrectionist activity in the area. This isn't what I wanted to talk to you about though. Do you have time?"

"Plenty." Sally said. "Would you like to sit down somewhere?"

"Let me just ask you right before we get to anything else. How do you feel about getting back out there again?"

Sally froze for a few seconds. Was Andsworth offering her work? To suit up again after everything that had happened?

"Not interested." she said bluntly. "I'm fine where I am right now."

"Highness, will you just let me talk about it before you go shutting an old man down?"

Sally pressed her lips together, explosively sighed, and waved a hand. "Sure, no problem; go ahead."

Andsworth nodded. "Alright. This information is maybe only eight or ten hours old, and it came to me first before anyone else. There's been word about a research team that has been looking at a brand new find of Forerunner ruins just buried in the rock. The scientists thought that it was research outpost for Forerunner Lifeworkers."

Lifeworker. She knew that term, and she knew it painfully well. These had been the Forerunners responsible for overseeing and sometimes guiding the evolution of beings across the galaxy. They had been headed by the Librarian, chief of the Lifeworkers, or Life-Shaper as she had been called. She knew all of this because it was the Librarian's "gift" that had mentally destroyed her precious Human. Her eyes narrowed at the mention of the Forerunner rate.

"Is that so?" she said in a low voice.

Andsworth sensed her anger, but continued, hesitating at first. "The, uh, the scientists that went in there - the Frontier Corps is still excavating the outer structure, but they're likely to be at it for years - and they were reporting finds and data for approximately a week or so, but on day nine, the researchers, plus one Dumb AI, went in, but didn't walk back out."

"Were they locked in?" Sally asked.

"No, not in the slightest; the door was wide open."

Sally's ear twitched and she shifted her weight. "What? What do you mean?"

"Security teams pushed into the structure, checked all of the available square footage that they had, but turned up empty. It was the damndest thing."

Sally's eyes darted around. "Maybe they touched something they weren't supposed to. Maybe they messed up and got vaporized or teleported somewhere."

"Equally possible, but the head site researcher put out a distress call regardless and it fell on my desk. I thought about sending a response in. How would you like to go on a trip, all expenses paid and that jazz?"

Sally thought about it, tapping the toe of one of her boots.

"Look, I know you don't have a lot of love lost for the Forerunners right now, but you stay in your room for days on end, you aren't eating as much as you should, and you haven't seen... ah, your loved ones for a month now? Two?"

Her head snapped towards Andsworth. "Is there a reason for getting personal, Gerome?"

"Because there's also another angle. Your mother is worried about you. She thinks that you're losing your focus. How many times have you gone out to that gravestone?"

She didn't answer. She couldn't. The question had glanced off the bone and at once, she felt embarrassed that it had been brought up at all. She broke eye contact and looked over the Admiral's shoulder.

"How many, Sally?"

Her mouth struggled to form the phonetics required to convey some meaning, but her lungs wouldn't release the air, and her vocal chords wouldn't shape it into words. She blinked quickly, and after a moment, finally found the will to say, "Eight times." she said, pausing for a beat, "In three weeks."

Andsworth said nothing. Not at first. His eyebrows arched and his mouth disappeared behind his monumental mustache. "I'm offering to help you take your mind off things. I'm offering to get you back in the groove. Sally, say no to me if you want, but I know for a fact that you want to get out of this castle and do something to change the flow of things in this Existence. Hell, you could save lives."

She paced a distance down the hallway. Andsworth followed her. Alongside them were royal guards in red and azure regalia, golden epaulettes neat and ordered, bootstraps shining and free of even the faintest mote of dust. Not one reacted as the pair walked past them. Not one twitched. Sally herself had been on the receiving end of an inspection and was silently judging their every imperfection, even the slightest change in their center of gravity

"I'm going to put thoughts in your head right now: I think you're going to want to go. I think you want to be out there and not cooped up. You're not the type."

He was right. He was very right. Sally couldn't stand it. After everything, coming back here seemed almost like she was ignoring what happened the last five years; like she ignored what happened in New York. She did want to get out. Perhaps she was waiting for something like this to come across her door.

"If that doesn't work for you, I have another thing for you to think about. You have experience with Forerunner structures. I know about that little vacation on Installation 05, and the little speedbump you managed to get yourself into."

Sally winced. That had been close indeed.

"That's right I heard about what happened with Vohl Pelhot. If you can handle being on one of those rings, then a Lifeworker facility would be walk in the park for you. But that's not all. You managed to interface with Forerunner machinery. You do know what that means, right?"

"Yeah." Sally said softly. "That means I'm a Reclaimer. I don't know how considering I'm not Human."

"That doesn't matter to me." Andsworth said, pressing his point. "What matters is you have the ability. Not everybody can do that. Like it or not highness you're part of an exclusive club and your resume is looking better to me. Besides, given that stunt with Pelhot and the Index I know you can work well under pressure."

"Well, thanks." Sally said acknowledging the complement warmly, remembering just how close that came. What a terrifying experience that had been. "Would I be operating officially as an E-9?"

"I'll leave it to you this time, highness. You'll go with OMEGA's authority behind you; that is to say, my authority behind you. The UNSC won't give you any trouble here, I assure you. Technically - legally that is - you would be operating as a contractor."

The princess closed her eyes. Well, it was getting boring around here anyway.

"OK, Admiral. Give me the details."

Andsworth smiled. "I knew it. I knew you needed some air." he placed his hands behind his back and bounced on his heels. "You'd be sent in on a small ship; a corvette actually heading into the system anyway. We want a small team; something that won't cause any attention. You'd be able to pick who you want. OMEGA or otherwise. You give me the names; I'll put them together. Unless you feel you're alright to do this yourself."

"No." Sally said. "No, I'll put a team together I suppose. Missing scientists, Forerunner structure; I guess it's bigger than it looks from the outside, right?"

"You never know." Andsworth said.

Sally smiled. "Alright, alright you got me. Maybe I could use a little excursion after all."

The admiral spread his hands. "Well, alright, that's that then. You can have access to anything from the ship's armory before your ride gets here. I'll try to get who I can from my ship or someone else's."

"I'll get you some names." Sally said. "Transit time?"

"Nine days, maybe twelve. It depends on the scheduling. Everything goes as planned and you'll make landfall within two weeks." Andsworth extended his hand, and Sally took it, shaking it with vigor. "Welcome back to the outfit, Sergeant Major."

"Guess I couldn't stay away forever, huh?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

March 27, 3240, 0945 hours  
Egarda (Kepler-20f)  
Kepler-20 system  
Home Universe

Nine-hundred and twenty-nine light years away from Earth, Sally exited the rear of the dropship into the hot and dry air of the desert. She immediately raised her hand to cover her face as the bright light of the sun decided she needed a bit more of its kind embrace. She was not deterred by the heat, taking a few steps forward, still getting used to being back in a uniform. The BDU she had on felt like a second skin she had hung up a long time ago. The feeling was familiar to her of course, but it was as like being in the embrace of an old lover. She knew her way around it of course, but there was something haunting about it now.

Sally still knew how to take care of her clothing as well. The tan camouflage was pressed, folded, and up until it was exposed to the sandy area that they had decided to land, had been kept extremely clean. She was proud to have retained this skill. Some military skills died hard.

She wore no armor, but she had a bag slung over her shoulder that contained clothing, personal supplies, emergency MREs in the odd event she needed to head into the desert, and her weapon, broken into three parts, not to mention the ammunition meant for it. Sally stopped on top of a precipice, and looked over the desert, producing a small whistle that was carried away by the expanse.

Rock spires covered the expanse in front of her jutting up from the ground in odd places. These spires looked thousands of feet tall; so tall that they appeared to meet the clouds above them. She squinted and was amazed to see that many of these spires had green caps in stark contrast to the sandstone brown. Entire cloud forests had somehow established themselves in what she imagined was a much cooler climate thousands upon thousands of feet above the hot desert floor. She shook her head in pure amazement as quadruple-winged creatures flew from a particularly robust looking spire and cloud forest it hosted. She followed these creatures as they flew towards the west where she saw the mountains shoot until the curve of Egarda pulled them below the horizon.

She looked down now, and saw that perhaps five hundred meters from their landing zone, the familiar sight of an archaeological dig site. She turned back to the dropship and said, "Everybody out! Last stop on the line!"

Four men stepped out from the dropship, each as different as the days of the week. The first was a man she knew exceptionally well, who had been to hell and back with her on several occasions, and someone she trusted with her life. He did however have quite a pungent and assertive cigar omniprsent between his teeth. Sergeant Major Avery Johnson was technically the leader of OMEGA in the loss of the Capatin's stead, though she had asked for him to come along. Johnson had said yes on the spot, and the command was temporarily reassigned to another in the unit. He strode with confidence, bag slung over his shoulder, taking in deep breaths of the Sweet William roll and exhaling it in rings.

"Man, hot today." he said, walking closer to Sally. "Hot today! Goddamn!"

Following Johnson was a second man, powerfully built, with broad shoulders, shaved head, and a face that looked sculpted from marble. Tattoos covered the areas around his neck and arms, the most prominent of them being a skull surrounded by a comet trail of fire on his bicep. Sally had actually worked with Shane Kanow on two occasions before this, the most important of them being the push to eliminate the Terran Dominion's hold on the city of Huron in the Alpha Centauri B system five years prior. As an ODST, Sally knew that he could handle himself in any situation. It had been an interesting choice to bring Kanow, considering that he also outranked Sally by a few rates, but she believed that having an expert soldier could help perhaps with tracking and survival. Orbital Drop Shock Troopers she knew were trained to make their way through virtually any environment with ease and were taught through traditional navigational methods as well as unorthodox means of fighting blind.

Kanow did not wear the trademark black armor of the ODSTs though. His massive musclebound frame was barely contained by an olive T-shirt and BDU pants, tan boots keeping his feet from being burned on the sand, not that he probably minded a little heat. On the shirt, the same style of skull was contained in a darker olive version of a drop pod. Sally always thought that it looked uncannily like a coffin. He was the polar opposite of Johnson, sporting alabaster white skin that did not seem to tan, and his dark eyes were hidden by a brow ridge that cast shadow on them, making them hard to see even on a bright and sunny day like this. He nodded towards her and came to the group. Kanow was a captain, though he agreed to come along, for reasons that Sally didn't quite know yet. This meant that despite rating higher, he would report to her, a contractor. Albeit a contractor working for a vice admiral.

Sally's eyes, once more headed back to the Pelican's open troop bay. She waited, and waited, before hearing a thump of something falling over in the back of the bay. She groaned, dropped the bag, and jogged towards the craft, freshly clipped hair fluttering in the hot air as she went. She took a small running jump onto the lip of the ramp and walked inside to interrupt an argument between the Pelican's crew chief and the last man who had been brought along on this little mission. She saw the crew chief's red face first and could hear the raised voice as he pointed to materials all over the floor of the dropship that had apparently been properly stowed.

"I put that stuff away for a reason!" The Human said. "Stowed! You understand what that means, huh? You understand, you jackass?"

"Right, chief." the other one said.

"I have this place squared away so that there's no possible way that a dumbass like you can drop those medical supplies, computers, and safety equipment to the floor and break them! Look at this!" the crew chief said. "Look at it and understand this shit! This is a forty thousand credit rescue beacon! This will save our lives if we go down in the desert!" He dropped it. It was non-functional anyway. " _Rotto e brutto_."

"Chief." Sally said.

The naval NCO looked over the offender's shoulder towards Sally.

"I'll deal with him."

"I don't have time for this if he's going to break UNSC property."

"That's OK, we won't be flying with you again; we'll have a different bird." Sally said, attempting to appease the angry Human.

"Hey Ralphie, let him go." the pilot said from the cockpit. "We'll just fill out an incident report and they'll give us a new one. Seriously, we can just say it fell out in re-entry. Hit an air pocket or something."

"Then they'll grill us for not securing it." the crew chief said to the pilot.

There was a laugh from the cockpit. "No they won't. Seriously, just let him go."

The crew chief glared at the man who had made his day difficult, and said, "Get out. Get off my Pelican and never come back. I see you again, I may just drop a few cargo crates out of the aft rack by accident on your goddamn head!"

Sally reached in, grabbed Corporal Cody Roberts by the shoulders, and forcibly steered him off the aircraft with the crew chief watching them every step of the way, even after they had exited back onto the sand. Without a word, the troop bay door was sealed with a sharp pneumatic hiss.

Sally grimaced. Roberts. He had once been crowned 'King of the Fuckups' by his old unit commander. When he had been accepted into the STARs, it had been more of a pity acceptance than of any real desire to train him. Even after his short stint in the unit, he continued to impress in the way that he knew how: finding new and exciting ways to screw up a task. Even the simplest thing from getting a coffee with milk resulted with him getting a tea with half-and-half. Sally really didn't want to bring him on the mission. That vote of confidence had actually come from Johnson, who was impressed with his performance back in New York. Sally immediately protested, but Johnson had argued that Roberts needed to get field experience or he would never improve in his discipline. Sally had asked how field work would improve his inability to follow instructions.

Johnson said to leave that detail to him; an extra pair of hands would be useful in the long run, and in any case, Johnson was technically the commander of OMEGA in Sally's stead. Her decision to bring him along had ramifications as well, in that _he_ could choose to bring anyone he deemed necessary.

"Why not John?" Sally had asked Johnson. "If you're going to bring anyone, why not the Jolly Green Giant?"

"Track down scientists? Nah, the Navy has better things to do than send him on an assignment like this. Besides, they turned me down anyway; 'misallocation of naval resources' they said."

Johnson took a puff on his cigar and watched as his soldier was brought back.

"Here's your golden boy, Johnson." Sally said, giving him a small, gentle, but noticeable shove back towards the Sergeant Major. "Going to need to child-proof the base we're staying in."

"You can get the bags." Johnson said, motioning to Sally's bags as well as Johnson's own. The Marine slid it off his shoulder and offered it to Roberts, who took it with self-reproach.

"Aye-aye, Sergeant Major." Roberts said, hefting both of them onto his shoulders.

Sally noted that Roberts had made yet another poor choice that nobody had bothered to correct him on. While she was dressed in a short-sleeved BDU shirt and cargoes with only the lightest of webbing that held pouches and pockets, Roberts had insisted on fully gearing up in RAF desert camos, complete with light ceramic battle plate. In addition, he had his own ruck with him, that weighed in at approximately forty pounds. She did the mental calculation that the red panda was hefting close to one hundred and twenty pounds on his back and shoulders. What Roberts lacked in grace he made up with in physical strength.

"Orders ma'am?" Kanow asked, quiet among the din of her other two teammates. Sally felt odd that Kanow, a Captain, regarded her as the leader, and more than once during the time before and after her stint in the _Blind Spot_ 's cryo-bay she reminded herself that on this mission at least, she was technically not operating as a UNSC non-commissioned officer. She was a contractor; a third party. She had to admit that this made her seem like a CIA spy or something like that. She wondered that for the first time in her life that she could call herself a mercenary. She was even taking money for the job too, so there was that.

"Wait here." she said to Kanow. "We're expecting a ride to the dig site itself. Pelican can't actually land anywhere close. Might cause some damage to anything they haven't unearthed."

"Not that I'm arguing against the wisdom of the science-types," Kanow began, "But if this stuff is Forerunner in origin, I doubt we're going to do much damage to it."

"Ah well, you never know, Captain." Sally said, a small smile forming on her face. "Perhaps there was once an intelligent race that once lived on this world that worshipped the Forerunners. Maybe ancient Covenant! A lost colony, perhaps?"

"That seems unlikely." the ODST responded, face impassive.

"But how are we going to know unless we unearth just a few more feet? Just a few more handfuls of sand."

Kanow didn't make an outright reflection on this, but a slight twitch of his lips and the cocking of his head to one side showed that her words had at the very least some effect on the man. Damn the man was impassive. Sally didn't know an incredible amount about the man other than his record. It was impressive. Almost fifteen years of ODST experience under his belt, and five before as a rifleman in the 45th Battalion. Now part of the 107th Division, Sally had noted that he had also served on Talahan V. That made him very interesting to her indeed.

She decided she wasn't going to get through that way. Even though he didn't show it, she was willing to bet that Kanow was actually more intelligent than the facade he threw up. Probably a tactic in the event that he was actually captured. She plucked a device from her belt and flipped it open.

"Enjoying the sand?" she asked it.

"In all its silicate glory." NICOLE responded. "Actually, I was doing an analysis on the ground itself. Some of it managed to land on my scanner. Did you know that there's concentrations of sediment in it?"

"Sediment?" Sally asked, interested as she walked away from the group. "What sort?"

"Get this: trace amounts of chlorine and sodium. What do you think that means?"

It didn't take her long. "The only reason there'd be sodium is if there were... water here."

NICOLE's holographic form appeared half an inch off of a projector. "Yup. Turns out the dig site is situated on the edge of what was once a cliff looking over an ocean vista the likes of which we've never seen."

She stared out into the wasteland. The stacks of rock taking on new significance to her in light of the information.

"Wow." Roberts said. "There was water here? Like a whole ocean?"

"At the very least a large lake or a small sea, probably the size of the Gabeker Sea on Mobius." She leaned over Sally's shoulder and said to the Humans, "For you that would more or less be the Caspian Sea in Eastern Europe; Bordered by three countries and-"

"Thanks, NICOLE." Sally said, stifling a laugh. "I think we can dispense with the geography lesson. What can you tell me about those forests on the top of the sea stacks?"

"It is what it looks like really. The temperatures are cool enough to support complex plant life at the top of the stacks. Some of those are likely complex eco-systems with self-contained environments. A lot of the animals up there have adapted to long-range flight either by the jet stream or by their own flight power. The plants are probably suited to lower air pressures as well."

"Would there be an reason for scientists to go up there?"

"Well sure." NICOLE shrugged. "But only if you're a biologist or botanist. Aren't we... uh, hunting archaeologists though, Sal?"

"Was worth an ask." she said. "Do me a favor and keep your ears open in case you hear anything when we're around the dig site."

"Asking me to spy on the scientists?" she asked, a hint of mischief in her voice.

"Never." sally said, crossing her heart. "Just, if you have a moment of opportunity, just catch what falls through the cracks, OK, hon?"

NICOLE winked, and vanished.

While they waited, she decided to make more small talk in the hope that it would get some team synergy going. "How about you, Sergeant Major?" she said, addressing Johnson, "Any possible ideas on where to start?"

He removed the cigar from his mouth and pulled his cap off with his free hand, letting his short wiry hair catch the sun.

"If I was a scientist, and if I were missing, my first thought would be I touched something I wasn't supposed to."

"That's my thought as well. Think we should question the staff?"

"Would be a good place to get things rolling." he nodded, sliding the Sweet William back under his tongue. "I mean, if they did go missing, who's to say the scientists maybe don't know something."

Sally took a seat on a rock, eyes now wide open and a wide smile crossing her face. "Johnson, are you perhaps implying _murder_?"

"You see the size of this place?" the Sergeant Major said, indicating what was doubtless once the bottom of a massive, yet gentle sea. "You look out there and tell me that there isn't at least one crevice to had a couple of stiffs in?"

"I'm with the princess." Kanow said. "You seriously think that the staff here had something to do with the circumstances of the missing personnel?"

"Captain, I'm from Chicago. I know how police investigations go down."

"I thought you were a clone." Kanow replied without missing a beat.

Johnson almost visibly recoiled. "Well shit I guess everything's public knowledge nowadays isn't it? Bet you all know the color of the Chief's boxer shorts now or something like that."

"White." Sally said quickly.

Three pairs of eyes wheeled towards her.

She let the moment hang, and then broke into laughter. "I'm just screwing with you guys! You should have seen your faces! Oh man, that was good."

"Now I got an... I've got that image in my head." Roberts said, wheeling his finger around his temple. "Hey, wait a minute; you never asked for my opinion." he said, suddenly incredulous that he had been left out.

"That's right, Roberts. Never did." Sally replied, getting up and walking back towards the ledge. "You weren't originally supposed to be here. When you start making up for breaking that beacon, I'll include you in this little Crime Scene Investigation."

Roberts seemed seriously dejected, and simply waddled around with the weight of the bags dangling off his shoulders miserably. She actually felt bad that she had struck out like that. He was clumsy true, but he didn't deserve it in that manner. Seven minutes later, the sound of a combustion engine faded in over the sand. The small group gazed down the hill and in a moment, a robust looking vehicle came up to meet them. It was a pickup truck of some make that Sally did not recognize, but she made out the boxy and beveled surface that she believed was for both stability and integrity. It was studded with lights and a spare tire was bolted to the back. A lone occupant was at the wheel. He was tanned nearly brown in the sun, though his features were thin and blade-like. A ball cap was secured on his head and the short shirt he wore on top of the cargo shorts was emblazoned with the logo of the UNSC Frontier Corps - An orb with a flash of sun on the upper right, with two rings forming an 'X' over the front, one of them like that of a gas giant's, and the other containing an electron. One of the research staff it seemed.

He killed the engine, yanked the emergency brake, and clumsily got out of the vehicle. Sally looked down and saw the sneakers the man wore were absolutely filthy, and made the inappropriately grey socks he wore underneath seem like a fresh sheet of snow in comparison.

"Hey! Hi!" he said, extending his arm to Johnson, who seemed like he was the one most in charge of everything at first glance. "We saw the ship come on down and I guess I'm your welcoming party! I'm Danny Hoyle, Research Assistant at Site 417."

Johnson dragged on the cigar and hooked his thumb in Sally's direction.

Hoyle's eyes darted over, and the rest of his body followed him.

"Oh man. Oh I'm so sorry. You're the one that's in charge, right?" he said, looking her over for a second as if he wasn't sure what to make of Sally, then his eyes went to Roberts, and was more fascinated by the baggage claim he seemed to be impersonating.

Sally was about to say something, but then realized that not everybody had seen a Mobian before. This guy Hoyle was probably seeing this race for the first time. Sally needed to put on a good impression. Every report went back to someone and she was damned if she was going to get a stern talking to for scaring the locals.

"Sergeant Major Acorn. Just call me Sally. I'm heading up this operation. This is Sergeant Major Johnson, this is Captain Kanow, and this guy right here is Corporal Roberts." she extended her hand, which was quickly taken by Hoyle and was held perhaps for just a few milliseconds longer than she would have liked. When he did let go, he said, "I was sent ahead by the site research staff to pick you guys up and bring you into the camp itself. That way you can get the information from our security teams to begin looking around I guess."

"You have your own security compliment?" Kanow asked, eyebrows raising.

"Uh, yeah." Hoyle said with a nod, his cranium bounding on his neck as if his spine were made of rubber. "J&L Security Associates."

"Rent-a-Cops." Kanow said in disgust. "Useless. Why didn't you get an actual UNSC detachment? Even an Army squad?"

"Frontier Corps thinks operations on Egarda aren't big enough to warrant any additional presence. There isn't a big enough population on the planet to source a unit from. You guys are the, uh, most heavily armed we've seen."

That didn't make Sally feel good. The liaison between the UNSC and security contractors would be messy at best and hostile at worst. While they wouldn't outright shoot at each other, they definitely wouldn't be the best of friends. Sally didn't know this J&L Security Associates outfit, but given the way Kanow reacted, they seemed even worse in standing than mercenaries, and at best _those_ guys were a crap shoot in terms of moral fiber.

"How about I take you down to the camp first. You can get settled in, maybe we can get you guys something to eat if you're hungry, and you can talk with the head site researcher. Doctor Lee is sure to talk your ears off with the details on the scientists. Come on. There should be room for everyone."

What Hoyle had neglected to mention was that there was only room for one additional passenger in the cabin. Everyone else would need to go in the hopper. Kanow and Johnson elected for the rear seat, and perhaps out of guilt, Roberts said that Sally could have the front. She wasn't about to argue. She slipped off her backpack and threw it into the back of the truck, careful to make sure her weapons were still secure in their packs. She opened the passenger door of the truck and slipped in next to Hoyle who already lit the ignition. The truck rumbled to life and Sally realized that the engine sounded a bit different.

"Is something wrong with the truck, Doctor?"

"Sorry? Oh, and it's not 'doctor'!" Hoyle said with a sheepish smile. "Just Research Assistant. Not quite there yet. What was your question?"

"Is you truck OK?" Sally asked. "It sounds different."

"Different? Oh you know what it is? A lot of these truck out here run on traditional refined petroleum. It's cheaper to make out in the less travelled parts of space. Yeah there's plenty of refineries on the other side of the planet, and there's a hell of a lot of hydrocarbons on this world. Did you know that this was once a cliff on the side of a massive sea?"

"Yeah it looked that way." Sally nodded.

Hoyle worked the gear shift into drive and loosened the emergency brake, cutting the wheel around and turning the truck back in the direction of the dig site. The Pelican, now seeing that the passengers had been picked up safely and were now not their problem any longer, lit its engines and fed power to the propulsion, slowly rising into the sky before blasting off in the general location of the _Blind Spot_ , hidden somewhere in that deep blue expanse of eternity.

The truck on the other hand had a much less impressive ride. Sally had one hand on the roof grip in a contraction so tight that she was sure the skin underneath her fur was turning white from the pressure. The truck, despite looking like it was built to head-butt landmines for a living, had suspension that left a lot to be desired. She hoped Miles would never hear about her riding in such a travesty of spring comfort. However, the vehicle did not tip over, merely rumbled as the pathway dropped a few degrees more than she would like. To keep the others in the conversation, she slid open the back partition of the cabin and exposed their voices to the passengers in the hopper.

"What can you tell me about the camp itself?" Sally asked.

Hoyle said, "Four major buildings - bunks, administration/IT building, latrines and the mess hall. There's maybe around forty of us here full time."

"Do you have part time staff?"

"Well, sometimes we get some from the local schools here on the planet. Those guys have to be flown in though and they're usually grad students majoring in xenoarchaeology. I actually went to one of the schools here and I'm working on my dissertation while helping out."

The road became slightly more civilized, which was to say that the sandy track became packed and toughened by regular traffic.

"Have you ever had trouble from the outside?" Kanow asked from the hopper.

"Sorry?" Hoyle asked, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Have you ever had people give you trouble? Raiders, terrorists, Covenant Remnant?"

"No, nah, we haven't had any issues. We're just out of the way here. Nobody really cares that we're doing the digging here; we're just don't have much to show for it at the moment. So I guess even the shady sorts are keeping their eyes off us."

"How long have you guys been at this then?" Roberts asked.

The research assistant then looked over his shoulder and then to Sally. "Uh, two years."

"Two years?" Johnson responded. "You didn't get anything done?"

"No, we got some stuff done! Take a look! We've dug out nearly two stories of stone structures. We just couldn't get anyone into the main temple until the Frontier Corps sent us someone who could open the door."

"So you needed a Reclaimer." Sally said.

"Yeah. They sent us someone with the correct genetic markers maybe two months back. Doctor Lindenberg. She was heading up the research team that went into the temple and never came out."

"Time missing?" Sally added.

"A week." Hoyle said.

Relatively fresh then. She didn't agree with Johnson's theory that they were killed and hidden somewhere in the desert. What would the benefit of killing a Reclaimer? She knew these were relatively uncommon individuals that had been granted access into Forerunner structures and had an innate sense of how their machines worked. Killing one would only guarantee that some doors couldn't be opened. Unless that was the actual plan of course.

The truck came into the main compound, and Sally got her first good look at the representatives of J&L Security Associates. For a registered security company they seemed like bog standard mercs who wanted to play soldier. She narrowed her eyes as she saw their demeanor. Some of them had slackened postures, garish and unorthodox outfits for desert operation, and the most unforgiveable was a poor respect of the weapon. Several had fingers loosely resting on the trigger even though there wasn't a hostile in sight. She wasn't a weapons aficionado unlike one of her Human friends that got into that business, but even she could tell that the quality of the firearms they had were of cheap make. Stamped metal receivers, plastic grips that looked as if they would melt under sustained fire, and tactical accessories that looked like they cost more than the rifles they were mounted upon.

On top of that, the security officers had poorly groomed faces, sporting half-grown beards, stubble that crept down their throats, and even the female officers had frizzled hair that weren't even tied back. Sally knew that this one was a major problem in combat, which was why she kept her hair short or pulled back in a ponytail when going into the field, though under protocol she should wear it in a bun. She knew beards weren't that big an issue; she had known several Humans to wear beards in various states of fullness, but when she looked at the forest for the trees, she was not impressed, and considered giving J&L a one-star review the first chance she had access to an Internet terminal.

The camp itself seemed more professional, if not prefabricated. Heavy drop craft the size of small apartment complexes would have brought down these completed buildings and just dropped them in the sand. She had only seen this on rare occasion as this was how Fort Acorn, the first UNSC base on Mobius, had been constructed in such a short period of time. It was quite amazing how quickly a small settlement like this could be made.

The base was small in the grand scheme of things, stretching less than half a square mile. The rounded structures were painted blue with white highlights to help it stand out from the desert, making it the most colorful objects on the ground, and easily visible from a long distance. The logo of the Frontier Corps was painted on them in regular location, and she immediately could tell from looking through the windows that they must have been air conditioned. She felt a lump form in her throat and realized that she was actually very hot, despite the air conditioning running at full tilt.

The jeep pulled up in front of the administration building. Hoyle yanked the handbrake and killed the engine. "Well, here we are. Doctor Lee is waiting in there."

Sally was aware she was getting quite hot now that the air conditioning had shut down. She only too happily ripped off the seat belt and stepped onto the packed dirt that had been exposed from below the sand. Someone had seen to it that a lot of the areas around the main buildings had gravel placed around them. Soon she could hear the crunch of the small stones underneath her boot heels. She looked back and saw that Kanow, Johnson, and Roberts had dismounted and followed her. Roberts didn't have the bags. They would likely be in the truck. Leaving a weapon unattended was something that would have gotten her smoked a thousand times over by a drill instructor, but she doubted the scientists even knew they were packing in the first place. The locks on the bags would keep the curious out as well.

She followed Hoyle through the door and for a split second, her brain conjured up the image of the Great Northern Wastes of Northamer where the permafrost layered the ground. The cold was so sudden she may as well have been in thermal shock. She sighed gratefully though for the change in heat and let her joints relax as she looked around. The space was more or less one big room with small cubicle-like partitions that separated lab stations from what she assumed were the actual offices of the scientists. A lazy collection of binders, notepads, and at least a full forest's worth of paper was scattered on the myriad of desks, upon which sat at the very least two computer screens, though she spotted four at one station. It appeared mostly empty with the exception of three people around a desk. Two Humans, and in the very center of them, a Gallvente.

They all looked up on their approach. The Gallvente speaking first.

"Ah, Researcher Hoyle! Welcome back! And welcome to you too!" he said, addressing the crowd.

Sally noted that like many Gallvente, he spoke English excellently, with only a trace of what she assumed was its native accent. They had the gift of language she knew and possessed the skeletal bits required to speak many of them. She smiled, but was unconsciously wary. Gallvente were one of the more alien looking of the Humanoid races in this part of the galaxy. His twin pair of arms more or less mimicking how a Human would move, though the smaller of the two rested on his hips while the longer ones performed different motions. Its two pairs of eyes were fixed on her, but without noticeable pupils in the black orbs she couldn't be sure if this creature was looking at her. The vaguely beak-like mouth broke into a smile, revealing a row of white teeth. Sally was never quite comfortable with this, because the Gallvente went out of their way to act Human, and sometimes their efforts smacked in the middle of the Uncanny Valley. At least they meant well.

"Doctor Lee I assume?" the princess asked, extending a hand, which was taken by the alien. She noted rubber and then saw that the creature was wearing blue scientific gloves tailor made for his race.

"Yes indeed. Doctor Xuha Kello Frah Bruce Lee."

Her eyebrows raised and jaw loosened.

"Bruce Lee?" Johnson asked. "As in _The Big Boss_?"

Lee smiled again. "My favorite movie of his! I was fascinated by the choreography growing up!"

Johnson still looked a bit confused. Lee explained, smile not diminishing, "Our people take additional names in our lives for accomplishments of note. Upon graduating from the Archaeology School on my homeworld, I took the name Bruce, and then on attaining a doctorate, Lee. Just call me Lee!"

"Uh huh." Johnson said.

"We're happy you finally came by." Lee said, addressing Sally. "Our security consultants have run into a brick wall. They only have so much authority to operate and only so many resources. So I am grateful the UNSC sent in a team to go further than J&L can."

"Thank you, I appreciate that." Sally responded. "I'm going to need as much information as you can give me on your missing scientists and what they were up to."

"Of course." Lee said. "I'll be more than happy to help. Researcher Hoyle will get you accommodations, and feel free to have leave of the whole site."

"Thanks again, Doctor." Sally responded with a grateful nod of her head.

Lee seemed to lose some of his sparkle, and indeed sounded quite upset. "Just get them home safe. This should be a journey of knowledge. We're to unearth history, not bury those we love in it."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

March 28, 3240, 1017 hours  
Site 417, Egarda (Kepler-20f)  
Kepler-20 System  
Home Universe

Sally had awoken that morning at just after five, something she doubted she could shake with any degree of success. She had risen from the bed immediately thinking of being back home; comparing the room around her to what she had been comfortable with. She thought of the bunkroom on the _Indomitable_ as well and how this closer resembled that. The room she had been allocated was small, though shockingly private. It was the size perhaps of a very large closet with separate window, though the bathrooms were more or less communal. She cleaned herself of the sweat she had accumulated over the last day, and ensured she was in top hygienic condition before leaving to eat breakfast.

She had been thoroughly been informed by Doctor Lee the day before, of the backgrounds of the scientists, their areas of study, and when they had been individually transferred to Site 417. Each had extensive paperwork to go through which necessitated going through every related sheet. While Site 417 had extensive computerized records, she opted to going through the physical backups with NICOLE's help of course. They had been at it for over seven hours by the time they had called it quits. Before she went to bed that night, Sally had forced herself to remember the name of at the very least part of the team. She had seen the name of Doctor Rosa Lindenberg so often though she could swear she would be recalling the name even years after this operation ended. The good Doctor had an impressive background, a prodigy child at an early age who had an innate skill for psychology and interactions with people who had cultivated that skill in specialized school on a world that Sally had never heard of, Contranto, located near Buffer Space, the imaginary line of lawless worlds dividing what was considered 'safe', making her early life a risky one indeed if Covenant Remnant had decided to conduct raids on Human space. On growing up, Lindenberg immigrated to Tribute in the Epsilon Eridani system, only a scant eleven lightyears away from Earth, becoming a citizen of one of the larger countries on the planet and quickly finding work on the University of Balay board of scientific directors. Five years after that, she had been headhunted by the Frontier Corps, and her career really took off.

And yet she ended up here. Fifteen years of high scale digs and at least one extraordinary find relating to pre-Covenant outposts of the Sangheili, she had ended up on Egarda. Not a bad world in its own right. Sally had no doubt that it was because of their current location, but the lower population and lack of political influence said that he world was a backwater, life-giving as it was, and odd given its relative place in Human space.

As she had dressed in a T-shirt and light cargoes, she wondered if the assignment to Egarda was a punishment of some sort. Probably not; Lindenberg had led a sterling career before. Then again, they _did_ need Reclaimers to get into the lower levels of this facility. Sally herself knew that these were technically in finite amounts, herself included. She had even heard that there were breeding programs to produce more Humans to run Forerunner machines. These were, of course, rumors, and ones that came from beyond UEG-held space, so none of her concern in the end. Still, that particular prospect was disturbing if people wanted to get inside a secure Forerunner base or laboratory that badly.

Lindenberg's other scientists however didn't have nearly as impressive a collection of resumes; most of them were grad students, and some were even undergraduates from a motley collection of universities and colleges. She recognized a few of them as being on Earth, though many of them were on countries far flung across the universe. These weren't incredibly important beyond confirming the identities of those that had gone into the structure where they had disappeared. She shuffled the papers back into place and organized them in a folder she had brought along. There wouldn't be any need to go deeper until she was absolutely certain that she had not missed anything. If the doctor's team had tripped something and got themselves zapped, she wanted to be sure that she could recognize faces or distinctive marks or even clothing if shreds of those were left behind. As a precaution, she took scans of the faces with NICOLE's camera, and as a bonus, scanned a code on the same personnel file that actually contained a plan of a three-dimensional rendering of each person's head and face, allowing it to be viewed from any angle needed. All very good and useful to help locate the scientists and determine who was who.

She took a sip of the coffee that had been in the mug next to her and she nearly gagged at the taste. It was burnt, quite badly so, and she had to mask the flavor with an entire cow's worth of milk and half a plantation of sugar. Even then, she could taste it, sloshing around in her mouth, reminding her more of a foul-tasting cough syrup than a drink to keep her on her feet. She swallowed and looked at the cup as if it had grown three pairs of eyes. Still, she had to drink something other than water.

"This is quite the party size, Sal." NICOLE told her as data streamed over her screen. "There's ten people in this particular group."

"Funny huh?" Sally said, glancing at some local maps of the area. "Ten people go missing and not one could think to pick up the phone and dial?"

"Maybe Johnson's right." the AI said. "Maybe they are dead."

"Johnson said that there was foul play involved." Sally corrected.

"Right, sure. But don't you think that's a bit curious?"

"We still have to actually head into the structure itself. We only did a check of the surrounding area, and even then that was a general sweep for tracks or tire markings in the sand."

"I'm just saying. Did you go through the J&L personnel files?"

"No." Sally admitted. "Why would I need to do that?"

NICOLE's holographic form materialized above the table, appearing as if a full-sized Mobian lynx were sitting cross-legged on the surface. The slight flickering as dust motes wafted through the projection broke the illusion.

"I'm looking through them now. Got to say that these guys don't have the strictest vetting process. Can't believe they give these guys loaded weapons."

"Were the J&L files within Site 417's databases?"

"Well... no." The AI admitted. "I had to talk to the base's sysadmin who confirmed that to me. I kind of had to do a bit of extra-digging."

Sally looked up at her, coffee mug slowly setting on the table. "You broke into an off-site PMC's personnel files?"

NICOLE managed to look guilty, which was amazing considering that if she wanted to she could hide that. "Look, it's not like we've done worse over the last few years. Breaking into a few government computers and using their files to our advantage is kind of heavier than a third-rate security firm."

"You know, it's the principle..." Sally said, starting to form an argument, but she sighed explosively and said, "...nevermind, just show me."

NICOLE smiled. Her form vanished, and in its place was a collection of holographic documents, each with a name and personnel record attached to it. They scrolled by incredibly quickly, and Sally realized that perhaps this was the entire company's record of its employees everywhere. She was proved correct in this realization when NICOLE isolated twelve files and displayed them in rows and columns.

"These are all of the security officers on-site right now." the voice said out of thin air. "Twelve individuals, each of... questionable reputation."

Sally looked at the pages as close as she could. The resolution on the hologram was quite good so she could make out the text. After glancing at a few, she started to notice a few peculiarities, especially when the company had elected to place a 'Concerns' section on the CV of these men and women. On further inspection, she felt a combination of confusion, dread, and morbid curiosity. Nearly every single person on this list had written in this section a complete record of infractions, misdemeanors, and in two cases, felonies.

"What the hell?" Sally asked. "Who OK'd this? Who thought this was a good idea?"

"I know, right? There isn't really any laws on hiring cons; a lot of companies give people a second chance at a reputation of course, but this list... ah... this throws up a lot more red flags than it should."

Sally held her hands over her mouth as she read the files with felonies on them. Of those two, one of them was the commanding officer of this contingent of men.

"Captain Deric Karr." Sally read. "Age 37, born on Xi Bootes Ac, served in the UNSC Army; local garrison force... oh, and in addition to that, served five years in prison for assaulting an officer on two occasions. The first time he got demoted. Second time he ended up in a place called... the 'Lagoon'."

"UNSC military prison on the planet. Don't let the name fool you; the Lagoon is in the polar regions."

This was not good. Karr seemed to have been jailed for a serious offense, and the fact that he had done so twice meant that he had the ability and the motivation to bring violence against anybody. She did not have the reason as to why Karr had struck his commander, but what had happened in the end was just as chilling: he had been granted the position of Captain among his men.

Did Karr perhaps have something to do with the disappearances? Maybe he went in along with the scientists? Maybe he was the one that later reported that everyone had gone missing? There were certainly a lot of maybes in her reasoning, not to mention a chain of evidence that she was clearly missing. She had nothing to prove that Karr even went into the ruins in the first place. This dejected her somewhat as she was entertaining the idea of the man as a suspect.

Maybe she still could get this out of the way. There was no harm in at the very least eliminating Karr as a suspect, as flimsy as her reasoning was. She could also use him to further her own exploration of the Forerunner ruins. That settled it. She would kill two birds with one stone. If both of these were dead ends, at the very least she would get it off the list. She steeled herself and downed the rest of the bad coffee, stowed the rest of the files in her folder, and made sure to grab NICOLE before she left the room.

The rest of her team were wasting time in their own bunkrooms. They had to, as there was no real direction as to how to proceed. Generally speaking, the Marines and Roberts were exercising in one form or another to keep sharp. It was something she herself had done regularly. If there was one thing that being in the UNSC did for you, it was keep you in shape. She flexed her abdomen at the thought and shuddered to think of going soft in any way. She gathered them up and told them what she had decided to do.

"I wasn't expecting you to actually give that any thought." Johnson said a little sheepishly. "I just wanted to contribute."

Sally looked at them all in turn and put her hands on her hips. "We need to think this through thoroughly, guys. We need to explore all the angles. For all we know this is the right track."

"So." Kanow asked, crossing his arms. "Just how would Karr be able to kill ten scientists?"

"We don't know he was the only one. He could have had a posse."

"I think you're grasping at straws. I think we need to investigate the ruins before we start jumping to conclusions. That's the most likely place they would have gone."

"That's my plan actually, Shane." Sally said, shifting her weight. "This is what we're going to do: the first of which is that we're going to tell Doctor Lee about what we think."

"He's not going to like that; that we suspect their own security guys." Roberts said with a detectable note of apprehension in his voice. "He might shut us down."

"He can't do that." Sally said. "We're operating under the authority of a UNSC flag officer who greenlit this investigation. As Doctor Lee and the Frontier Corps are also under the UNSC, he has no right to refuse us. He doesn't have to like it."

"We may find nothing." Kanow said, growing more annoyed.

"Relax." Sally said, with a bit more force this time around. "Karr comes with us to investigate the ruins. We all go in there strapped and loaded for bear. If nothing happens, then nothing happens, and we clear the structure. Karr shows any sort of reaction to the whole ordeal, and we take him into custody."

"Alright." Kanow sighed. "This isn't going to end well though."

* * *

Lee was less than thrilled over the whole ordeal when Sally recounted the reasoning to the head site researcher.

"I have to say I'm not thrilled about this." Lee said in a low tone. "Sergeant Major, you've been on site for two days and you already suspect my chief of security?"

"With respect, Doctor," Sally said, her voice gentle and deferential, "We have several avenues we wish to explore, but I want to eliminate Captain Karr as a potential suspect if he is indeed not responsible."

Lee twisted in his chair, one set of eyes focused on a computer screen while the other set watched Sally. Likewise, one of his lower arms typed commands on the keyboard. A small part of Sally's mind considered the gesture a little disrespectful, but Gallvente may have been quite good at multitasking, and saw no disrespect in dividing attention. That, or Lee didn't think her claim at a treacherous guard warranted his full energy. "Do you have any evidence that Captain Karr could have killed Doctor Lindenberg and her staff?"

"No." Sally said flatly. "We don't have much to go on aside from prior offenses."

"Which is?" Lee asked.

"We were able to obtain personnel files from J&L that listed that Captain Karr had assaulted a superior officer twice before being arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. Assaulting the same officer a second time shows that Karr has the potential to be vindictive and can hold a grudge. He is also capable of carrying out great personal harm, and is more than capable of murder. Doctor, Captain Karr beat his Lieutenant within an inch of his life and likely could have killed him if other soldiers didn't step in."

"I'm still waiting to hear how Doctor Lindenberg factors into this."

Sally shrugged. "That's where I'm at a loss and where speculation begins."

"It seems like this is all speculation, Sergeant Major." the Gallvente said.

"Yes, but here's the more likely possibility: Doctor Lindenberg and her team disappeared and is still inside the Forerunner ruins you uncovered, and due to being a Reclaimer, proceeded deeper into the ruins through doors or portals otherwise inaccessible to the other staff."

Lee cocked his head. "Hmm, you should have come to me with that theory first instead of pointing fingers at my men."

Captain Kanow said, "Doctor Lee, were you aware in the first place that your security staff nearly all had prior convictions on their records?"

Lee leaned forward, fixing his full attention now on the ODST. "As a matter of fact I did, Captain. As you may have already known, Site 417 is low on the Frontier Corps' list of priorities. So we found Forerunner ruins; so what. They're a dime a dozen nowadays and nearly all of them have far more potential than ours. The way things are turning out, we stumbled across the Ecumene's version of an outhouse so far as we know. This was why Rosa was such an asset to us. It cost us much to bring her out here, so our sectional budget demanded that we... settle... on other security contractors, and even then we were forced to hire local and individually. J&L charges by the agent, you see."

"So this leads me to my next point of action." Sally said, taking center stage once more. "I am a Reclaimer." she placed her hand on her breast. "I can get into those otherwise inaccessible areas."

For the first time, Doctor Lee seemed surprised. "I... I knew that they were sending one; I was assured so by Admiral Andsworth, but I wasn't under the impression that... that _you_ were the Reclaimer."

"Expecting someone else?" Sally asked, an eyebrow arching.

"Yes. Absolutely. Nearly all conventional knowledge over the last eight hundred years has said that Humans were Reclaimers, and only then, approximately forty-seven percent as of the last study; maybe less."

"I won't go into the details, but I can tell you right now that you actually have two on hand. Johnson?"

The Marine inclined his head, looking pleased with himself.

"Sergeant Major Johnson also has been confirmed to have the genetic markers to access Forerunner systems despite complications in his history. I won't go any further than that, but he can open just as many doors as I can. Doctor, I think you've hit the jackpot. The best part is you didn't need to spend a single dime to get us."

A grey tongue poked out of Lee's mouth and licked his lips in anticipation. Four arms settled on the table and tapped, sounding like a drum line. His breathing increased. Sally let the silence grow. She didn't dare interrupt the Doctor's thought process as he weighed his options.

"Then why bring attention to Karr?" he asked, finally speaking.

"As I said, elimination of all possibilities."

"So you wish to enter the facility?"

"That isn't so much a wish, Doctor, as it is our prerogative as an investigatory force. You can't necessarily stop us, but you can assist us if you choose."

"How?" the Gallvente asked.

"Lend us Karr for the investigation into the facility. He comes with us, we stake out the area; open a few locked doors, and above all, keep an eye on him. If he shows any reaction to the crime, or if we find the bodies with evidence that Karr and/or his associates may have had an 'interaction' with them, then we place him into custody for questioning and bring the UNSC in on it. That's all. No frontier justice here, just procedure."

Roberts looked over at his princess with major respect showing on his face. Though he knew that she looked down upon the way he conducted himself at times, he was massively impressed with how she handled situations, getting what she wanted while at the same time soothing another party into trusting her. Roberts knew this of course because she was completely genuine in the way she conducted herself. There was no play at duplicity here, just sheer honesty in her reasoning. It was one of the reasons that Roberts was proud to have her as his future monarch.

Lee regarded Sally, slowly nodding his head. The slow movement then had more energy. "OK. That I can do. That I can do, but Sergeant Major, I urge you caution and I urge you to please, please be careful. Any rash actions will reflect poorly on this site, on the Frontier Corps, and on me as well. Do you understand?"

"Clearly, Doctor." Sally nodded. "We will do our utmost to keep things professional."

Doctor Lee extended his hand. Sally reached across the table and took it, noting that it had folds and wrinkles similar to that of a Human, and though she couldn't really feel it, she guessed that it would have felt the same as Human skin. They clasped tightly and shook once.

"Good." Lee smiled. "Excellent. I have nothing but high expectations for your expedition. Are you going to need anything more?"

"I have a request." NICOLE said.

Lee seemed surprised for a moment at the voice that came from thin air, before Sally retrieved the computer from her hip holster, and unfolded the cover. NICOLE materialized in the air.

"Have you performed a seismic scan on the site?"

"A cursory scan, yes." Doctor Lee said. "That was to set up the initial dig sites."

"Can you perform another? This time can you perform higher intensity and deep penetrating scans if you can? I want to get an idea of the size of this facility. That way we can better carry out the next phase of our operation."

"And that would be?" Lee asked.

NICOLE's eyes seemed to flash, and she half-smiled. "This is a Forerunner facility after all; and I know from personal experience that they're bigger than they look. Doctor, we're going to need reinforcements."

* * *

Four hours later, Sally stood outside of the entrance to the dig site. Behind her were squares of uncovered sections of the earth. Even now, archaeologists gently cut away at the ground around the exposed Forerunner architecture in the event that they stumbled across larger, yet to be uncovered tops of temples, housing, or walkways that may have even been even better hidden. She glanced behind her for a moment and wondered just how old these structures were. Easily a hundred thousand years old, maybe even older perhaps. It had to take a while to bury these buildings in the ground. She returned to her former activity after a moment of contemplation, which was watching the sky with a pair of electronic binoculars, looking for sparkles among the sky that could have indicated the location of the _Blind Spot_ which had apparently coasted over their location many times over the last few days. She had contacted Commander Xu and had explained the situation. He had agreed to the request and immediately sent a Pelican loaded with five additional men. Their personnel records had been forwarded to Sally for analysis, and she was happy with what she had gotten. She now had nine men under her command, which brought their ranks to eight Marines, one RAF soldier, and exactly one J&L security agent. Now she had something to work with. Given the size of other Forerunner structures she had been inside, most notably the Silent Cartographer at Installation 05 and the subsequent trip to the Control Room of that ring, ten seemed like a small number, but if her time with the Freedom Fighters had taught her anything more, it was that it was not the size of the unit that mattered, but how they were deployed.

Yes. Ten would be enough. More than enough if she played her cards right and operated surgically.

She spotted a glint in the air; a very faint one, as if it were a small grain of glass that had the odd chance of reflecting light at her. Within moments, the glint was enveloped by flame.

This was their Pelican, now entering the atmosphere carrying the extra troops. She followed its progress lower and lower. Within fifteen minutes, the dropship had lowered itself into the same position that they had originally landed at two days before. She lost sight of the Pelican as it landed up over the ridge, but within an hour of it landing and reporting its passengers offloaded, it lifted off once more into the blue azure expanse, rocketing back into space, doubtless to meet the starship on its next pass over the area.

Sweat matted her fur and she took a drink of water to try and stymie the temperature increase as well as to replenish her much-needed body moisture. The temperature inside of the structure would probably be much lower, almost frigid at points, but she wanted to be prepared. She reached into her pack and brought out the pieces of her rifle, slotting them all together before locking them in place with a few pushes of the push pins. She did all of this within forty five seconds and was consistently impressed with how simple her gun was. She also grabbed one of the magazines from the pack and slapped it into the magwell, but she did not rack the weapon yet. Clicking on the safety, she let it hang from a three point sling.

"What do you think?" she asked NICOLE in her earpiece. "Did we do good with these guys?"

"There's strength in numbers." The AI admitted. "I think we did well to take on a small force. You can still have a lot of power. You're technically still in charge, but if you desire, you can split up into two echelons with Captain Kanow taking command over the second."

"That was the plan." she said, now noticing the same pickup truck that had come two days prior now peaking over the ridge. "I like it. Looks like our new friends are ready for war."

The Marines had been fitted out with long arms. As they came closer, she saw that while three of them were Humans, two of them were of her homeworld. One was even a chipmunk, a lean and tall male with short clipped black hair and fur the color of charred wood. His blue eyes were the first thing Sally noted about him, that and the frosted tips of his ears.

The second was a wolf, and a musclebound male at that. His light grey fur stood out, though his mane was quite well groomed; short enough for the helmet to fit on his head, but expansive enough that it seemed to form a natural insulation on his head. He was speaking to the others and they seemed to be laughing about something.

The other Humans she couldn't really put a finger on. They seemed to run the gamut. Different skin tones, and there was one female. The red cross on her BDU indicated she was a medic or at the very least a Navy Corpsman. She hadn't even requested that. She made a mental note to personally thank Commander Xu for that particular addition.

"Alright everyone, this is it." she said into her radio. "Gather up on me."

She dropped a NAV point on her location, appearing for all the world like a glowing blue triangle represented in 3D space. Johnson, Kanow, and Roberts met up, geared up and ready to move, and after a few moments, a reluctant Captain Deric Karr.

Sally sized Karr up in person and was just as disappointed with him as his personnel file photo suggested. The man was bedraggled as if he had to drag himself out the door every morning. His beard was unkempt, his eyes seemed red-rimmed, and crinkles were everywhere on his uniform, which mainly consisted of a polo shirt, tan slacks, and matching color boots. A pair of sunglesses were pressed to his face. What Sally was impressed with though was the sheer muscle mass that this man possessed. While Karr left a lot to be desired in the realm of being a decent Human being, his gains were not one of those things. His arms were so large they seemed to stretch the sleeves that they were contained in. Sally found herself looking them up and down unconsciously before she tore her face away from him. She wouldn't let Karr out of her sight. Not until of course she could confirm just where Lindenberg's teams went.

"Captain Karr? Are you secured?"

"Yeah." The guard said, giving only the barest of nods.

So he didn't like her. Too bad. If he didn't like that, he could take it up with his head office. But that wouldn't be until after this.

The jeep pulled up next to them and the Marines jumped out. Researcher Hoyle spoke a few well-meaning words of parting, though he was still as awkward around the group as he was when Sally and her team landed.

The wolf came up to Sally. He was perhaps close to six feet in height, and his dark tawny eyes seemed to match the sand he stood upon. "Sergeant Major, Staff Sergeant Cawl, Fire Team Uniform on the _Blind Spot_."

"Pleasure to meet you, Staff Sergeant." Sally said. "Ready to get some shit done?"

Cawl seemed to be taken aback from the obscenity that had just come from his monarch's mouth, but at once, a smile brightened his face. "And get paid too? You know it." he pointed back at his fire team, first at the Mobian Chipmunk. "That's Sergeant Taylor; Just Taylor. Likes to be called Smoke though. Don't give him that pleasure. The sawbones there is Petty Officer Second Class Lucy Vicci," he said, indicating the Corpsman, "Those other two knuckleheads are Master Corporals Ollie Kant, and Joji Izuki, our 0311s."

Riflemen, Sally thought, immediately decoding the MOSs.

"I'm at your command, Highness."

Sally's eyes shot to Karr, who most definitely didn't know who Sally was. Though Cawl was obviously a subject of the Kingdom given the nation patch on his shoulder, and knew who Sally actually was, it was not information she wanted to spread around.

"Staff Sergeant, on this op you will refer to me as Sergeant Major, is that clear?"

Cawl got the message immediately. "Yes, Sergeant Major. We're ready to move on your order."

"OK, follow me." Sally said, the cross expression fading from her face. "Time to go to work. Everybody, on me. We're going into the dig site now."

The ten servicemembers of different races and creeds descended into the dig site, each one of them armed and armored, ready to fight whatever stood in their way. They realized that this facility could be guarded, and heavily so. Even at this point, a lot of what they had to go on were legends and hearsay about the dangers within. Sentinels, Sally thought, would likely be the most possible threat, and she was sure that the armor penetrating rounds would be the best thing for this operation. She was sure to carry these in addition to ball ammunition for her rifle.

The incline was created by using a digging machine, most likely a backhoe, to pull at the ground and create a rude ramp to what was now ground level. Sally looked at the sandstone that had been broken down and pulled away. She could even see evidence of shells that were fastened within the ancient sediment. The sun faded away as the shadow of the ruin fell on them. Sally was thankful for the lowering of temperature. It let her think a bit easier.

The doorway itself was roughly trapezoidal shaped, hewn into the rock, though with as much machine precision as the metal portals that she had seen anywhere else. She was impressed even by this minor detail, and as the group passed into the building, a night and day shift occurred. At once, they were surrounded by stone geometric shapes and columns that extended to the ceiling. She craned her neck to see the roof and was surprised to see lights shining down upon her, which were obviously not from the dig teams. These were original fixtures. Absolutely curious.

Nobody spoke as they quickly found the only passageway that led down further into the facility. This one was open and was, like the doorway leading in, stone.

"Two by two. Captain, on my starboard."

"You've got it." the ODST said.

Sally regarded the man in his armor. Kanow had opted to wear the ODST helmet that he always had when on regular duty. Fastened onto his head, the man glanced around. His faceplate was depolarized, revealing the face of the man underneath. His eyes faced dead forward, weapon held at the half-ready. Kanow, the princess knew, was exceptionally skilled with his long arms, as he frequently had to rely on expert marksmanship, especially in hostile environments such as airless rocks or poisonous atmospheres. This also technically put the Captain at an advantage over the rest of the crew. That was fine. She knew it may come in useful somehow.

Sally steadied her pack. She had enough food for three days of work, though this was a routine move; she expected that maybe this would take a day and no longer. Five magazines were on her harness and a further four were in her pack, all of them extended with forty rounds apiece. Still, she kept a round out of the chamber. Not necessary yet.

The hallway made a hairpin turn, continuing to go downwards. Sally noted that the hallway wasn't very tall considering the chamber they had just left. This was maybe eight or nine feet high, meaning that this was indeed designed for a Lifeworker. She wondered about the bigger rates and chuckled as to how the Lifeworkers could keep their work secret simply by making the hallways too small.

"What's up?" Kanow asked.

"Nothing." Sally said, failing to hide her stupid grin. "Nothing; let's keep going.

At the bottom of the ramp after turning the corner, they entered another stone chamber. This time though, there was a distinct difference from the top level: in the very center of this room was a pad that was made out of the silvery metal that Sally had noted whenever the Forerunners were present. She couldn't work out its function, but she guessed that it must have something to do with getting them deeper into this place. So it was wither a lift or a terminus portal, she reasoned.

"NICOLE, does this mean anything to you?"

"Let me see." she said, before the device on Sally's hip began to heat up, indicating a speed increase in her runtime. She was processing this hard, looking into prior experiences. "Looks like a lift. My guess is that this was as far as the Site 417 staff made it. I think this is where the system is locked out. Time to go to work, Sal."

Sally nodded and stepped closer to the lift, which if she wasn't told, she never would have identified. "Stand back, guys. I've got this." she said, creeping closer, step by step, not entirely sure what to expect. When she was four feet from the lift pad, a holopanel activated. Sally's eyes lit up at it, and despite her dislike for the Forerunners, what they had been indirectly responsible for her life, she felt an uncontrollable excitement in her chest. A tingling feeling at the base of her skull urged her forward. Her breathing came fast and her heart beat just as quickly. She felt this was right.

Johnson watched her. Though he was able to control it, he felt the same desire, the same knowing of what this was and how he wanted to use something as simple as this panel. It was instinctive, as involuntary as breathing was.

Sally's hand made contact with the panel in the air. Her fingers felt resistance from the hard light panel, and at once her fingers moved around the panel. She couldn't read the language that she saw nor did not understand exactly how to navigate the menus that flashed and tumbled in front of her, but she knew that every single touch she made on the surface was right; correct.

Then, the panel flashed bright blue, and sang a three note melody. She backed away. Her task was complete. She had activated this lift. She let out the breath she had been holding at the end and smiled, a laugh sneaking into it at the end.

"Wow." Roberts said. "How did you do that?"

"I just did it." she explained.

The lift began to pulse blue, quicker and quicker as energy began to flow through the cracks in the floor. Portions of the ground began to raise, and soon, the humming stopped. Everything was calm and serene.

Karr stood there with his mouth hanging open dumbly. Sally glanced back and saw this. She stared for only a split second before facing forward again, a seed of doubt now planted in her mind.

"Alright guys, here's the plan: we're going to split up here. I want-"

" _Mayday, mayday! Help! Can anybody hear me?!"_

Sally slapped her helmet's COM set. "We can hear you! Who are you?"

" _I'm Aida, civilian AI, serial number ADA-4829-1!_ _I'm the site artificial intelligence! Help! We're stuck!"_

"How many of you are there?" Sally asked.

" _Ten! Doctor Lindenberg's team is trapped on the other side of a terminus we found in the building! We have wounded down here!_ "

Sally looked at Vicci, who was apparently hearing the same conversation.

"OK, stay there; we're coming down now to the terminus!"

" _Thank you! Thank you so much! Hurry! We can't wait much longer here!_ "

The channel went dead.

"An SOS?" Johnson asked. "After a week?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Sally said. "OK, here's what we're going to do: Johnson, you and three guys are going to stay up here. I want you to watch this lift. Let nobody in, not even if they give you clearance."

"You've got it." the Sergeant Major said.

She picked the other riflemen that Cawl had brought with him. "Kant, Izuki, I want you two to stay with Sergeant Major Johnson. Listen to any order he gives you."

"Aye-aye, Sergeant Major." Kant said first. Izuki nodded. They both began to spread out and take position around the chamber. At least they were well trained in that regard.

"Everybody else with me."

They all gathered on the lift pad without another word. Sally counted to make sure they were short three, and then hit the button to lower the lift.

The descent began slowly. So slowly in fact that Sally wasn't even sure she was moving at all until the ground started to rise up around her. Everyone was in amazement. For some of them, this must have been their first time in a Forerunner ruin. None was as surprised as Karr though. Sally's theory about the J&L security agent murdering the scientists was shot dead, not by his reaction to the lift activating, but by the announcement of Aida, the scientist's AI. So it was clear then. Karr didn't kill anybody, as much as his background would suggest he could.

Sally had to mentally chastise herself though. Correlation did not imply causation. Just because he had done some bad things in the past did not indicate that he would do them again. Karr seemed like a dimwit perhaps, and was most definitely misguided in his life, but he was not a killer. So that theory was out the window. Lindenberg and her team bungling into a closed off section or even one-way terminus however was all but obvious at this point.

The lift continued to go lower. The sides of the wall gave way to transparent metal, with only the faintest of contours visible in it. The areas around the lift had bright pulsing beams of light shooting into the floors and ceilings. Spinning turbines received these beams of energy. Small metal robots darted between these beams, some of them shooting small lines of light into them, perhaps repairing or calibrating them. They sure weren't Sentinels. That much was for sure, but she had no doubt that they would be seeing more of them later.

At last the walls were yanked upwards and they appeared in a massive chamber. At the far end of which stood a massive doorway, easily twenty feet high. Sally marveled at it, noting that it was pulsing with the same sort of energy that she had seen outside of the lift tunnel.

"Holy crap." Kanow said. "Look at this."

"What do you think it is?" Roberts asked.

"That's a terminus." Sally pointed out.

" _Larger than it would usually be too_." NICOLE added. " _That must be what all of those beams of light were. Probably a power plant of some sort. If that's so, then this gate must be able to move more than just people. Don't ask me what; I'm at a loss_."

Just then, the portal of light exploded into a dazzling array of blues and whites. A vortex sprang to life with what was a surprisingly quiet blast of air. Everyone took a step back out of instinct.

"Split into two teams!" Sally ordered. "Kanow, left! Three of you on him!"

The Marines and company spread out, taking whatever cover they could around decorative pillars. Sally yanked back on the charging handle, fastening a .308 caliber round into the chamber. She lifted the stock to her shoulder and peered down the sights and started breathing hard and deep.

They waited for a minute; nobody moving a muscle.

"Hey, I don't think anything's coming..." Karr said. It was the first meaningful input he had given since he had joined their group. His twang-like accent was unlike anything Sally had ever heard before. Almost like that of her friend Bunnie... but different. Regardless of this, Sally saw that he was correct. The doorway stood there, portal now clearly formed. A whirlpool of energy contained on a singular plane. Its radius deepening into a near black the closer to the center it got. Forks of lightning spread into the surrounding air, though there was no threat on its own.

"Orders?" Kanow asked.

"We go through!" Sally said. "In two teams! Kanow, you go in; I've got you covered. Once you're through, give us cover on whatever's on the other side."

"If it's hostile? Sentinels?" The ODST asked.

"Fire on them!"

"Aye-aye!" The Marine said. "Everyone move! Double time!"

The squad on the left sprinted towards the terminus, not one of them deterred by the unknown on the other end. They seemed to trust Kanow. As an officer and a Helljumper, it seemed like he would have a nose for danger. If the man who could lock himself in a bullet bound for a planet's surface thought that it was good to move, then following him would be a good idea.

Taylor was the last one through on Kanow's team.

"OK, the rest of you guys, follow me! Cawl! You're bringing up the rear! Karr, you're going to earn your pay on this one! You're in the middle!"

"What?" the agent asked.

"Come on!" Sally ordered. "We don't have a lot of time! If there's heat on the other end, we're going to back Captain Kanow up! Double time it, Marines!"

They charged, Sally's mind forming possibilities of enemy contact on the other end of the terminus. There would be a remarkably small amount of time to take stock of this environment. The smarter thing would have been to recon the area with one man, but it appeared as if the scientists were in a bit of a bind. The UNSC could not afford to lose Reclaimers either. She pushed back the rational part of her mind. It would only slow her down, and pure, raw, animal emotion drove her ahead and into the terminus.

Before she even had time to register the severe wave of nausea that passed over her, she landed on the other side, rolling to a stop. She groaned and forced down the wave of sickness that had passed over her, and she did a once over to see if she was in one piece. She was, and she was happy even that brief instant of transit was done.

"NICOLE?"

" _Transit successful. Looks like the tunneling system works fine even after being buried in the sand for a few eons._ "

"Glad to see you're in better shape than I feel right now." Sally said, groaning. She turned and saw her men exit the terminus behind her. First was Vicci, then followed Karr, and after him, Cawl. The Mobian wolf have a howl of discomfort as he fell forward onto his knees.

"What was that?!" he shouted.

"Slipspace portal." Sally explained. "You were just transported through space in like, an instant."

" _Less than half a second actually_." NICOLE corrected. " _You just did what starships do every time they make a jump_."

"I need some water." He said, plucking a canteen from his belt and downing some of it, grimacing at the same feeling Sally had just defeated.

The portal closed down not long after, the tempest of energy winked out of existence, leaving Sally and Kanow's group in an otherwise unremarkable room of silvery alien metal.

"What happened?" Sally asked.

"Nothing." Kanow responded. "We got through here and there was absolutely nothing.

Sally briefly scanned the area. It looked as if this was some sort of lobby. It had to be. Benches of some sort hovered off the ground, seats forming smooth surfaces for occupants. On either side of them were rows of plants and trees, vibrantly growing and even bearing flowers. She was awestruck by these completely alien plants, instantly comparing them to those on her homeworld. "What is this, like a terminus waiting room? Like a Forerunner bus station?"

" _Possibly._ " NICOLE said, but not much more.

Sally saw something on the wall that caught her attention. It appeared like another control panel like she saw on the top of the lift. Without hesitation now, she walked towards it and tapped several times. Perhaps this would activate a map of some sort. The wall lit up and then slowly began to lose opacity. First a little, and then it faded to near transparent. The room began to brighten, and soon the light had illuminated the entire area, forcing some to look away. Sharp shadows were cast on the far end of the wall. She stopped, her jaw dropping, and her eyes grew the widest they had ever been in her life. She was speechless.

In front of her, stretching to the infinite horizon, impossibly flat, was a sea of yellow-white matter. The startlingly bright ocean throbbed, pulsed, rose, sank, and churned without stopping, dominated by forces too complex to be understood by the eyes alone. Amid this brightness, vast swathes of darker brown patches rolled about, spewing what vaguely resembled magma. Some places on this surface towered like mountains, heaved above this surface in the blink of an eye, while others dipped far below, yanked by gravity and the god-like forces that operated here. She tried looking to the sky above this, but she could see nothing but bright light extending far, far away, far higher than she could have assumed possible. It merely became an overcast sky of grey, reflecting the light back down into an eternal unceasing furnace.

Then, in the distance, a flame leapt out from the surface. No, this was not flame, this was something else entirely. A column of pure plasma, jetting into the sky far beyond the view of the window, arcing into an awesome loop before spiking back into the surface. By Sally's guess, this must have been thousands of miles wide.

But the brightness, the sheer expanse of it all, the impossibility of this world revealed to their eyes, and the absolute sublime beauty of it all brought her to tears. It was something she never ever in her life thought she would ever see, and it now awoke a feeling that was too powerful to close down; to hide behind her stoic exterior.

"Where _are_ we?" Roberts asked, his voice far away and spoken in a tone like that of a young spellbound boy."

Sally finally found the words, and said in a shaky, humbled voice, " _The sun_."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

March 15, 3240, 1454 hours  
Location Unknown

The sun.

They were standing just over a star. An actual star, splayed out beneath them blasting energy, light, and radiation into the heavens far above. The sight was mesmerizing and nearly impossible to put into words. They all stared; it was impossible not to. Seven men and women simply watched the boiling seas of plasma erupt into space, throwing arcs of solar energy up over the surface. Everywhere they looked, the process continued far into eternity where it all seemed to blur together, the haze of photons eventually obscuring the activity in the distance.

Sally asked NICOLE, "I know that this is going to be a tough one, but can you confirm that this is Kepler-20?"

" _Not a clue. Even if I did have access to a terminal, I doubt I could get through the solar interference. Sally, I think we're completely cut off. I think we're deep in the corona. Before you ask, it's actually cooler here than higher up._ "

Possibilities wheeled through Sally's mind. How could this place she was standing in even be possible? How could someone build this here? How could this have been placed in this location without being completely torn apart? Physical laws had to have been shunted aside for this construction, and the longer she thought about it, the more it hurt.

"I don't see a trace of anyone in here." Cawl said, scenting the air. "Smells sterile. Like nobody's been here in a long time."

"Except for the scientists of course." Roberts added.

"Yeah, but that's a small smell. Not a big one." he said, trailing off as he scanned the ceiling.

Sally followed his gaze, noting for the first time that something that appeared to be banners were hung from the ceiling, though on closer inspection, it was actually hard light. There was a slight haziness to it that the surrounding material did not have. On it, she saw a symbol that she was quite familiar with.

"The Eld." she said.

"What?" Kanow asked.

"I know that symbol." she said, pointing up to it. "That's the seal of the Mantle."

"You want to tell me what that is?" The ODST asked.

"Long story short, the ideology that all Forerunners followed. They thought that it was their mandate to rule the galaxy. They kind of had an iron fist."

" _And used it to keep a young upstart race called Humanity down_." NICOLE added.

"Ancient history then." Kanow said, showing remarkable lack of interest towards his race's past. Maybe he just thought that since he was on the job he could turn his curiosity off. Maybe Kanow really was that one-track minded.

Sally made her way back to where they came from. She expected the terminus portal to construct itself in the air once more. She waited ten seconds, then tried looking for a holopanel.

"Anybody see a control surface anywhere?" she asked the others. "Computer or something just lying around?"

The group took a quick look, glancing on every wall, but failing to turn up with anything similar to what the princes had found on the now-transparent wall. However the effort was fruitless. There was no panel, and as far as they could tell, no way to call one forward.

Sally, at a loss, made her way to one of the benches and sat down on it. Before her back had gone too far, a rest had formed from thin air, giving her comfort, though this was minimal as she had a backpack full of supplies acting as a buffer. Even then, the bench accommodated her. She leaned forward, resting her knuckle under her chin. She thought hard, and was frankly confused as to what just happened. They had come through the terminus well enough. Perhaps this was the one-way portal that she had postulated on while coming down the elevator? She discounted that theory as well as this was clearly a waiting area or at the very least a something akin to a departure lounge for this portal system. There had to be people coming in and out.

"Think, Sal, think." she said to herself, massaging the bridge of her nose. She resigned herself to knowing that as long as they were in this room, they wouldn't figure out anything further. Despite the complexity of her environment, she couldn't think of anything further to do here.

"NICOLE, can you make a running map of the area?"

" _Can only do it on a room-by-room basis. Get me in a new location, I can procedurally build a floor plan. Or better still, if you can find me an interface I can actually get into, I can probably download a whole map of the area._ " she said over the squad radio.

"OK, I suppose that's our next objective." the princess said. "Taylor, Roberts; I want you here in this room for right now. Watch that terminus. If it re-activates, I want you to let us know, OK?"

"You've got it." the other Mobian chipmunk said, turning and taking up position on the other side of the pedestal that they were no doubt spat out upon. Roberts pursed his lips, as if he was uncomfortable with the order.

"What's wrong, STAR?" Sally asked. "You're just watching this point. There's nothing hard about that.

"Yeah, but... can't I go with you?"

"Oh God in Heaven..." Taylor said, turning away. "Look, I'm fine being here alone. Nobody's going to bug me here."

"No." Sally said promptly, giving a quick slice with her free hand. "Standard procedure is always two men on an entryway. Nobody gets blindsided, and in the event that someone takes a hit, one of you guys can pull the other to safety."

Taylor licked his lips, eyes darting to the left. "Are we, uh, planning on getting hit?"

"Just babysit Roberts, Taylor." she said, before turning her attention to the red panda. "You want some responsibility? This is how you get better. Follow orders and maintain your bearing. You're guarding our exit point; that makes you one of the most important people right here. I wouldn't have asked you to do this if I didn't have some faith in you." she risked a half-smile.

This seemed to reassure Roberts, whose ears ducked back in response, and his demeanor softened at first, then hardened.

"Guard the door." Sally said softly, but it was clearly delivered as an order.

"Aye-aye, Sergeant Major." he responded. Not the correct response as Roberts was Royal Army, but she appreciated it all the same. Though he glanced back a few times, he stood guard opposite to Taylor. She shook her head, but could see that this was indeed a good time for him to learn how to improve. It was funny how he was able to rise above PFC, but his actions in New York were indeed honorable enough to encourage that promotion to Corporal.

She turned and led her group out of the room.

"Captain, take point." she ordered.

"Consider it done." Kanow responded, placing himself at Sally's twelve o'clock, weapon shouldered. She heard a slight clicking noise before a very soft popping of air made itself audible. Kanow had activated a small shielding device.

Some, but not all, ODSTs carried a shield generator that didn't make them all that much dissimilar to a Spartan. Though Kanow's unit wasn't nearly as strong as the nuclear fusion reactor that the supersoldiers wore in their backpacks, he could still ward enemy fire if need be, and the shield was recharging as well. He cleared the hallway ahead with a quick sweep of his rifle, and waved them ahead.

Sally dropped back and kept an eye on Karr. Though she had thoroughly removed him from the murder equation, there was no way to drop him from this little adventure. He was now in it for the long haul, and if that meant keeping him under control, then so be it. She dropped into step beside him.

"I need you operating at one-hundred percent, soldier." she said, acting as if he was still in the army. "This isn't a place where you want to lose your cool."

Karr had a look on his face as if the closest wall had sprouted a face and began talking to him. Though his eyes were shielded by sunglasses, he was clearly uncomfortable that Sally was speaking so directly to him and in close proximity. She recalled of course that he had very rarely, or perhaps never saw Mobians, and almost certainly never up close. She wondered for a split second if there were even any chipmunks on Xi Bootes Ac.

"Why did you bring me?" He said, in that odd otherworldly twang of his. "Why am I here?"

"You're responsible for keeping the scientists safe, Captain Karr."

"Bullshit." he said quietly. "You've been watching me the whole time. You think I did them in or something."

So he was smarter than he looked too; a fact she hadn't seen expanded upon in his personnel file. Good, that could actually help them out here. He was additionally observant. The sunglasses probably helped with that.

"Maybe I was." Sally said, not quite confirming the theory. "Regardless, things have changed. When you're here, I want you acting like a soldier again. The Forerunners didn't mess around with their security systems. One false move and you're glittering dust in the wind."

Karr set his jaw. He understood well enough.

Sally trudged back up to the center of the group, taking second position behind the ODST.

The hallway was still relatively narrow, but was tall, twenty feet high at the most. The sound though seemed remarkably muffled, and the group couldn't hear much beyond their position. Suddenly, without any warning, the walls around them began to shift into near transparency, and the star below them became fully visible. A roiling sea of plasma moved with an unworldly fluidity, the burning energy and photons streaming up and around them. Light millions years in the making exploding out in impossible shapes and geysers of solar matter, and it was all happening right beneath their feet.

Sally tried to suppress a squeak of fear and failed, backing away instinctively. The Marines all had similar reactions, and backed against the walls, still somewhat visible to make them out, but not so much as to obstruct the view.

"Son of a bitch!" Cawl called out. "That shit isn't cool man!"

The demeanor died down. Karr got the worst of it and cringed, ducking, and resting his finger uncomfortably close to his weapon's trigger. It was still a small space, and a negligent discharge could cause ricochet. However, they were fine. Sally herself placed her hand over her rapidly beating heart and willed it to slow down.

"NICOLE, did you do that?"

"Don't look at me." the AI responded. "I'm just as surprised as you are."

"You... you, ah, think that was part of the welcoming party?" The Corpsman, Vicci asked. "Welcome them and then 'bam'?"

"Who knows." Sally shrugged, playing it cool, but only playing herself. Her voice was still audibly trembling and in the small space, she had no doubt everyone could hear it. "Just keep walking. Don't look down."

But she found it hard to take her own advice. Several times she looked down and a nervous laugh escaped her as she saw a stellar furnace right below her boot soles. She could swear she could even feel its heat. For the first time she decided to look up. As her neck angled back, her eyes tried to make some sense of what was above her. She saw nothing but a bright white-grey sky. She scrutinized it, but realized it was nothing but light. No stars were visible, there was no void. Her mind clicked that this entire area was deep inside of this star's atmosphere. Once again, the scale of impossibility impressed itself upon here.

"Look at the size of this place..." she heard Kanow breathe. She saw. It was so obvious, but she saw later than she wanted. The transparent tunnel revealed that this hallway connected to a massive structure of interlocking struts, buttresses, and compartments that must have stretched miles wide and deep. She couldn't see it well from here, but she saw what looked like a hint of rock. Rock? This close?

She didn't understand. She couldn't begin to understand what this place was and what its function was. More importantly, she couldn't understand why it was here. Why didn't their scans find something like this?

The hallway opened up into another yet more massive room. At once, before the features were even clear, the team split into two units, moving left and right respectively, watching to see what would come out. Their footsteps were the loudest thing in the area. The Forerunner architecture made no noise. Some of it wasn't even disturbed by the air they cut through, simply floating in place, much like it had been for a hundred millennia. The unit made a complete semi-circle of the room, sweeping their guns around each nook and cranny, and finally pasting their eyes at what they believed was a central support pillar, studded with design accents and glowing lights. When the teams met on the far end, they Sally nodded to Kanow and they stood down.

It was a good room clearing. Silent, observant, and above all, professional. She was proud of herself that she could still clear a room with the rest of them. She glanced up, rifle still somewhat at the ready in case something appeared above her. The room seemed to extend for three stories upwards and ended in a vaulted ceiling, powerful artificial lights raining down on them. The same hard-light banners hung from the ceiling, pushed no doubt, around by ventilation systems that still ceaselessly worked around the clock without any oversight. Still, there was a distinct lack of noise in this cavernous space. It felt like a tomb. Sally didn't like that.

"NICOLE, are you reading any sort of energy signature? Any pulse? Electrical currents?"

" _Yes! Yes, there's power running through corridors here. I can't pin them exactly but I can tell you there is a panel in this room! This has to be some sort of routing center. Kind of like a hub. Let me see... think of it like an atrium or administration desk._ "

"Makes sense." Cawl said. "If that room back there was the garage, this is the lobby."

It was only an approximation at best, but it seemed as if it was the best way to describe it. The Forerunners she knew were much more than their simple guesses, but the attempt a familiarity made this space a lot less frightening.

"Why... why do you suppose this room's so big?" Karr asked, his voice wavering slightly as he struggled to take in the scene. "D'you think these guys were huge or something like that?"

"Something like that." Sally called out. She let her gun fall to the sling's resting position. "Captain, cover me."

"Aye-aye." the Helljumper responded, gently tapping his fingers against his rifle grip.

Though Sally couldn't see his face, she had no doubt that the VISR in the man's concealing helmet was constantly scanning the room for bad guys.

"Now why would this place be empty, you know?" Karr asked, his voice carrying through the silence, easily audible all around. "Why would it all be runnin' still and there wouldn't be anybody to you know, use it."

NICOLE crackled over the radio, " _Captain Karr, in the distant past, the Forerunners wiped themselves out as an option of last resort. The weapon they chose to do that with is far more powerful than anything_ anybody _has right now. Parking over a star wouldn't do much to stop that_."

"Why the hell would they do that?"

" _It was a hell of a fight_." was all the AI said.

Sally heard a new sound. Her ears tried to turn to face it in her helmet, though she could clearly make it out as running water. In a moment, she saw that she was coming to a small flat bridge, wide enough for two people to pass abreast, though without guardrails. Beneath her was a gently flowing stream of crystal clear water that cascaded down a decorative waterfall. The stream flowed into several floating discs that themselves fell into a lower level, appearing for all the world as a house of flying saucers. In the middle of it all was what Sally could only assume was a stable Slipspace portal, silently ejecting water in a gentle arc into the middle of the pool. She froze, head cocking to the side, suddenly enamored by this little piece of soul.

"Oh that's really cool." She found herself saying. She took in this site, how oddly peaceful it was at this very moment despite the uncertainty of their situation. She closed her eyes and breathed in the air, and let her ears dance around on the inside of her helmet. The spell was broken quickly though and she realized she wouldn't get anything done just standing around. She checked to make sure her weapon was on safe and crossed the bridge. Once on the other side, she climbed up a small staircase designed to have each step as a semi-circle gently floating above one another. However, each step she took was solid and supported despite none of the stairs being connected to anything. At the very top, she reached out and ran her hand across the holopanel projected three inches off of the surface of the pillar. The action awoke something within the structure. A humming noise like a gigantic computer powering on filled the room, and soon, screens filled the air around her, scrolling and sorting themselves in space. She was overwhelmed by this at first, unable to tell what to look at first. Her eyes darted from screen to screen, struggling to find meaning in the symbols and patterns. Despite having an intuitive notion on how to activate these panels, the language of the Forerunners was a mystery to her.

She saw red pulsing on the screens in several locations.

"What do you think that means?" she asked NICOLE.

" _I think it's an error of some sort_." she said after a minute of deliberation. " _Like some of these systems are inactive_."

"Can you read any of this?" she asked her AI.

" _Only maybe one in twenty words. This is a dialect that I'm not familiar with. This may as well be a different language entirely. Also, given the fact that Forerunner language is highly context-sensitive..._ "

"Yeah, no good." Sally groaned.

"Not unless I have something to compare it to, like a Rosetta stone."

"Which we don't have." she heard Kanow say. The ODST approached over the bridge and fell in behind her. "We don't have access to anything here. Highness, we should be looking for signs that the dig team passed through here. We shouldn't be fooling around with systems we know nothing about."

"Captain, with respect, we need to get some basis on where we are. At least let us try to download a map or something of that nature."

"You could vent the whole room for all you know."

"No, I wouldn't do something like that." the princess responded. "If I clear my mind, I can think of what I want. What I want..." she trailed off, blowing air out her mouth in small chattering motions, "... is an interface. NICOLE, are you up for a bit of data spelunking?"

" _I could stretch my legs._ " the computer responded.

Sally once again let her hand touch the central panel, and with a moment of consideration, performed a series of movements that simply felt right. A glowing light appeared two screens away from her. She walked over and touched the glyph. She pulled it out beyond the screen, altered her hand position, and lifted it up.

As she did so, a pedestal raised from a spot beneath her hand. It rose to half her height and began to crackle with energy; the top of it warmed to deep blue and then to bright white. She passed her hand over it, but felt no heat at all.

"I think that's our interface." she said, glancing to the Human. "Relax, Captain. I won't send her in entirely. Think of it like dipping a toe into a river."

"Yeah except that river may have gators or piranhas or shit like that.

Sally made a sound between an annoyed sigh and a laugh. She pulled NICOLE from her hip holster and placed the unit on the white-topped pedestal. She let it sit there. The handheld unit rose into the air and was cushioned on an invisible pillow, gently bobbing and twisting with the air currents.

"Got a way in, hon?" Sally asked. "Any back doors?"

" _Actually the system here is open_."

"Open?" Kanow asked, letting his weapon hang on its sling. He crossed his armored arms and leaned in. His helmet visor depolarized and the Mobian could see the concentration in his brow. "Why would the system be open?"

" _Captain, this is something like a reception area. This is just a guess, but if this is something like a reception desk, then this would be a place where Forerunners could synch up or let their ancillae talk to the system_."

"What's the system saying?" Kanow asked.

" _Nothing_." NICOLE responded. " _Nothing. I'm not getting anything from the system at all. There's no ancilla in here answering my calls_."

"Ancilla?" Kanow asked. "Forerunner AI?"

" _Yes. Usually at an administration station like this, there would be some sort of presence. Ancillae communicate with each other regularly._ "

"Well, if it's abandoned... maybe it turned itself off?" Cawl asked from across the room. "Like, committed suicide?"

"That's a scary thought." Sally said, shuddering. A hundred thousand years, and finally decided you've had enough?"

" _Don't make me think of it_." NICOLE added. " _AIs think on a longer scale than you do, Sal. A second feels like a hour to me._ "

There was silence again as the device on Sally's hip whirred and alternated in temperature. Sally tapped her radio once more and tried to hail the Frontier Corps AI.

"Aida. This is Rescue Element. UNSC AI, please respond."

Silence. Dead air filtered through the speaker, layered with a crackle that could be solar radiation playing with the sound.

"I say again, UNSC AI, please respond!"

Still nothing. She bit her lip in frustration and paced on the platform, hoping to get some sort of response from the team. Something wasn't right here. Aida had contacted them from the other side of the terminus before they had even stepped foot on this station. They had a conversation. Why now weren't they getting any response. She expressed her concerns to Kanow.

"Beats me." The ODST said. "I'm paid to shoot things."

She expected that response. Nobody here was a technical expert. Sally was the closest to that, barring NICOLE, but it seemed that nobody, not even her own AI could get in contact.

" _I'll try again once I get a moment. Trying to sift through this system, at least what I can do wirelessly, is taking up nearly all of my runtime. This is not like other systems I've slipped into_."

"Why, what's wrong?" Sally asked, taking a step down from the platform and sitting down, relishing the feeling of being off her feet. She sighed in appreciation and contemplated the metal fixtures on the walls. Glancing up again, she once more looked at the hard light banners that swung from rafters.

" _Well, like I, this station uses an entirely different dialect of Forerunner language. I know elements of Lifeworker Eigon from Installation 05, but this is something different._ "

"Maybe a different dialect of Eigon?" Sally suggested, shrugging.

" _Yeah, maybe. These partial translations are really getting to me. I can't do more unless I know what this language is based off of. This should be interesting. Sal, touch the fourth screen, third button from the top left. It looks like two lines encircling each other, like a broken bulls-eye._ "

The princess followed the instructions, standing up to walk back to the array of panels, reasoning that the third screen was from the top left of what was in front of her. She had to stand on her toes to hit the button. At once, the screen blew up in size so quickly it startled her. Kanow jumped forward, arresting her backwards motion. She gasped and realized she almost fell backwards down the stairs.

"Thanks, Shane." she said.

The Helljumper only nodded.

Sally caught her breath and saw what had appeared. Around four dozen lines of text scrolled across the screen, each changing depending on the angle it was viewed at. Layers of letters also floated in the background, barely visible. How could anybody read this?

But what stood out were the red lines of text. About ten of them clustered together in the dead center of the screen. When she tried to tap one, the section flashed with a circular symbol that blared a warning at her, a loud and deep pulsing noise came from thin air.

"What was that?" She asked, once again taken by surprise by the volume.

" _I think I know that word_." NICOLE said. " _It's in the same dialect as the rest of the text, but I'm translating that as 'compromised' or 'broken'. I guess life support was shut down in that area._ "

"Well it has been a long time. Who was in charge of the system?"

" _You mean who was in charge of this facility_?"

"Sure."

Silence again for ten seconds.

" _You're not going to like this_."

Sally cocked her head, confused. "Why, who was in charge?"

" _The facility's administrator's credentials were easy to find. Practically right on the main page. Sally, in the last years of this facility's active operation, the administrator was a Lifeworker named First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song._ " NICOLE audibly hesitated. " _That's the Librarian_."

It was as if a switch had been flipped. Sally's jaw tightened and her nostrils flared. Anger beyond anger welled up in her breast and she found herself breathing hard, hands clenching around her rifle so hard it threatened to break the grips.

Kanow noticed this movement. He leaned in and softly asked, "What the hell's wrong?"

Sally walked away at once, the fury rising up, threatening to make her lose control. The Librarian.

 _The bitch._

She hadn't expected this. True, she knew that the ruins on Egarda were of the Lifeworkers, but to know that _she_ was the one in charge was not something she had wanted to contemplate. The Librarian, the woman who claimed to love Humanity beyond anything else. The woman who destroyed her life, one hundred thousand years beyond the grave. She watched a beautiful man waste away because of her, serving a dead race's interests.

She felt tears come into her eyes and she touched the ring on her finger.

"Are you squared away, Sergeant Major?" she heard Kanow call from the platform. "Do I need to take control of this operation?"

 _"Sally, I need you to focus. Listen, the Librarian was only an administrator. She may not have even stepped foot on this station; she ran thousands of facilities all over the galaxy._ "

"I won't dedicate more seconds of my life thinking about that alien if I can avoid it." Sally said in a low, warning, and menacing tone. She reached up, stymied the flow, and turned back to the platform, making sure to polarize her goggles a bit more before doing so. "Captain we're going to need to split up to cover more of this facility's area. We're not going to get anything done around here. We need a rally point too."

She reached into her belt and pulled out a small and fat cylinder, bulging slightly around the middle. The beacon was designed to be a powerful and persistent NAV point that would constantly be visible in their HUDs and was more powerful than what her VISR could put down. It would be visible just about anywhere on this station. It was a good move too. Anyone that became lost could come back here, since evidently regular radio transmissions were not functioning well here.

"Form up on me." she called out over the SQUADCOM, before looking around for a nice big area to claim. She circled the central pillar, sidestepping the hard light panels. When she reached the opposite side, just as she was about ready to throw the beacon into an area they had not covered before, she saw something in the large neatly leveled seating area.

She blinked, and then as quickly as she could, dropped down the shifting geometric shapes to the ground level. Around her were similar trees to what they saw in the previous room, only they surrounded what was undoubtedly Human electrical equipment.

She was confused as to how they missed this on the sweep. There was a lot of equipment here, mainly lamps, dollies, and in the center of it all, what she was sure was a portable holotank hooked up to a generator.

"Karr, does this mean anything to you?" She called out.

"Yeah! That looks like equipment from the base!" he said, suddenly energized. It was the most interested she had heard his voice. He ran over, weapon swaying as he moved. "That's from Building 4. Look, the number's printed on it."

He casually muzzle-swept Sally, who cringed instinctively.

"Yeah, I can see that." she said. "Why would it be here?"

Karr shrugged. "Some of the science-types like to record their sessions. Maybe they left something here."

"Amazing!" Sally said. Evidence. The first real sign of what had happened here. She came forward and held NICOLE in front of the IR connector. A few seconds later, the generator hummed, and the holotank glowed. The hologram emitter fired up, and NICOLE projected herself into the air.

"Something I can work with." she smiled.

"Ooh, a lynx." Cawl said. "Haven't seen one of those in a while."

NICOLE didn't comment, but said, "I have some good news. There are in fact some records on this thing that relate to Dr. Lindenberg's team."

"And the bad news?" Vicci asked.

"Well, there's only one entry." the AI admitted.

Sally shrugged. "Hey, better than nothing. Can you play it?"

"Sure. Even better: this holotank has a 360 degree emitter."

the AI vanished, and in her place, the holotank's central pillar rose. A strip of material lit up and at once, holographic representations of Humans appeared around them in various states of activity. They were frozen at that exact second, but the Marines could see that they appeared to be unpacking objects or taking notes. Standing four feet from Sally was a tall, slender woman who was perhaps around fifty, with short hair, packed into a bun. She wore loose-fitting clothing that suggested that they were expecting to work in a desert, though she had sense enough to wear a heavy-duty backpack. This was, it appeared was the doctor they were looking for.

The scene shuddered, and began to play.

" _Entry for March 2nd, 3240. Time is approximately 9:17 AM, Universal Standard Time. The initial shock of our appearance here hasn't affected us in the slightest._ " the woman smiled widely. " _A space station orbiting a star! This close! This is the last thing I think my team expected to find! We weren't surprised though to see that the entire facility was deserted though. I think we expected to find Sentinels or even a monitor here, but we haven't had any contact with any construct, save for perhaps a few Constructors when we descended the lift. Virtually all of my team recovered from their first terminus trip, though we're looking for a way to re-activate the portal._ _I've seen three -_ "

"Pause it." Sally commanded. At once, the scene froze. "So, they couldn't get the portal to open up either?"

" _That's what I'm gathering_."

"How the hell is that possible?" She asked, more to herself than anyone else. Her eyes darted, taking in this new information. "So they couldn't do anything from here?"

" _No._ " NICOLE said. " _Like I said, this is just an administration desk. There'd be no control over a terminus here_."

"Play it." Sally nodded.

" _-of my best computer technicians to look at the panels on the far side of this pillar, but none of them could make it past the first few screens. This facility, uh, looks like it uses a language that we're not familiar with. My resident, my resident Forerunner xenolingust, Doctor Monica Tito, wasn't able to translate the text. So that system is a bit beyond us. Even Aida seems stumped. So, the plan is we're going to set up a forward base here, maybe set up a radio beacon to try and contact Site 417, and then we're going to head down that hallway straight ahead_." Lindenberg's hologram pointed in the direction of a tall roughly triangular-shaped doorway to Sally's left. " _And from there we're going to get the lay of the land. According to that magic trick we saw coming in, there's larger spaces up ahead. If we're right, that's probably a storage area of some sort, maybe even a habitable area. Forerunners were known to make comfy places that are otherwise... less suited for biological life. Anybody, uh, anyone want to add anything_?"

A man rose from the back. He was taller than Lindenberg, had dark skin, and close wiry hair. His eyes were alert though and Sally could see he easily had three scientists combined beat in muscle mass.

" _I'm Research Assistant Roy Kostinger, Basherton University graduate student. This is procedure so I need to report this for legal record, this team is entering the facility with firearms. We have inventoried approximately ten Misriah MK6 model handguns, forty caliber. The purposes for these are for protection in the event of localized armature attack. Only certified members of the team, namely myself and Research Assistants Booker and Drakov shall be carrying. These weapons will be with the team at all times. Under no circumstances will weapons be left unattended._ "

Sally looked around and noticed that one strongbox was missing from the detritus. Kostinger was correct. The container, doubtless containing the handguns, was not there.

" _OK. That's that then."_ Lindenberg said. " _Thank you, Research Assistant Kostinger. We will be moving on in approximately forty-five minutes. Future logs will be conducted on site and will be transferred to this station. Concluding Record._ "

The scientists vanished, leaving only what they had left behind.

The silence descended once more. Sally stepped forward, held NICOLE's device in front of the holotank, and a small chirp indicated her program had transferred successfully.

"Orders?" Kanow asked.

Sally looked at the door that Lindenberg's hologram indicated. Their path was clear, and she had to thank the doctor for making things simple for them.

"That hatch." she said, pointing with her left hand. "Two man groups. Watch your corners and take your weapons off safe."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
March 15, 3240, 1545 hours  
Unknown Forerunner Station

Three rooms in after the administration chamber, Sally quickly discovered the clearing Forerunner rooms effectively was quite impossible. The layout of each area shifted and moved about as easily as the group looked at an outcropping or wall. There was no rhyme or reason as to why the walls moved a few feet in or out, or more commonly, why portions of the floor rose and fell to create objects that her training allowed her to recognize as cover.

Was this sort of defensive ability? She doubted it, as this was a Lifeworker facility. Perhaps the Forerunner scientist caste had additional security here? She knew that the soldier rate of their society was called Warrior-Servant, which effectively was the entire military. She mused on this as they entered the next hallway, which as a double-decked hallway, narrower on the top than the bottom. A more correct observation was that it was a hallway with a bridge going down the middle above their heads.

What was the purpose of constructing something like this? It eluded her mind. There was no defensive or structural explanation to it, so her mind defaulted to it simply being aesthetic. She split up her forces, one half including her, took the top walkway, while the other half stayed on the bottom. Both advanced at the same time, giving regular updates every couple hundred feet. The hallway did indeed look like it went on for miles, and likely it could have even been that long. More likely it was simply a trick of the architecture.

Sally led from the front, moving at a gentle jog - something that virtually every member of the team could also move it, even including Karr in the equation.

Nobody said anything. This was fine though, it gave the princess more time to think about what she had seen in that holographic recording.

Lindenberg and her team had moved through here. Her hologram had indicated as such. At times she wondered just how accurate the machine was. Was it actually pointing down the correct door? Had the doctors changed their minds after the recording ended? Had they, in fact, gone down an alternative route? There were many questions, though a crackle of her radio brought her out her thoughts.

" _I've got something_." Cawl said over the SQUADCOM. She could audibly hear his voice just a little bit over the transmission.

"What's that, Sergeant?"

" _Water bottle, Sergeant Major_."

Sally stopped her movement, walked to the closest part of the walkway with a ramp that led down to the lower area. "You stay here, OK?" She said, addressing Karr.

"Yeah, sure; whatever." The J&L agent said.

"Good." Sally nodded, before descending the ramp, the rubber soles of her boots making small squeaking noises as she kept her motion constant. She turned left to take the final small ramp to the lower hallway, similarly designed, except wider and flush with the walls of the greater area. "What's up?" she asked Cawl, who was holding the evidence in question. He offered it out to her, and she took it, immediately seeing that the labeling was written in Standard English, confirming that it was of Human make, and not perhaps a plastic bottle left by some other race to mysteriously find this place. She cocked her head at her own sarcasm.

"Just found it lying in the middle of the hallway." Cawl explained further. "Just up there."

Sally reconstructed the events of more than one week prior, and better understood things. The scientists must have moved from their staging area down this hallway, likely in one group, on this lower floor and had dropped one of their supplies, a simple, completely full bottle of water with the seal still unbroken. She flipped it over and saw that the name 'Marty' was scrawled in marker on part of the label.

"Must be carrying a lot of stuff." Kanow said, looking the bottle over and then down the hall. "If you were just on a stroll and dropped that, you'd notice it. Must have been pre-occupied with something else."

"Yeah, but what do you think that was? We didn't see everything in that recording." Sally said, hefting the bottle, then slipping it into a pack on her rucksack. "We're not exactly the kind of people who like littering." she said, winking to her countryman, who laughed softly. "OK, so let's keep on going. That exit isn't as far as it looks I think; It's just an illusion caused by how this place is built. So, when we-"

There was a cry from the upper walkway, then a string of obscenities. Sally sprinted up the ramp with Kanow in tow, both with weapons drawn. She thumbed the gun off 'safe' and emerged onto the top platform, instantly sighting in on what was up there.

A floating mass of metal hovered not a foot away from Karr, who held his Krinkov at shoulder height. The barrel of his weapon almost touching the drone that simply stared at him, its appendages clicking at the air. A low flanged hum escaped from somewhere within its body, and a single red light regarded the security agent.

Karr shivered in fright, his eyebrows high above his sunglasses. His finger nearly clamping on the trigger. Sally was convince the only reason he didn't fire was because he was gripped with shock.

Sally recognized what the Sentinel was the instant she saw it. She shouted, "Karr, lower your weapon!"

When he did not, when the bore of the rifle actually raised, she ran forward, nearly at a full sprint, and forcefully pushed the gun down towards the ground. With her other free hand, she reached down and clicked the gun on safe.

There was electric silence as she glared at the man, whose terrified eyes were still glued on the flying machine.

The sentinel hummed and bobbed in the air. A quick low grumble of untranslated Forerunner speech escaped what they assumed was its speaker. It looked between the two, at head height while its pincers and manipulators worked. It was almost as if the thing was deciding just what to do. Everyone held their breath.

The Sentinel moved towards Sally, the glowing red of its eye regarding her from head to foot. It was so close she could see the minor details in its body, and the small moving portions of its composition far too detailed to be picked from a distance. The light blinked, and a small orange scanning line radiated from it, fanning her several times, before the light blinked. It mumbled again, when in front of it, it flashed the same red symbol she saw at the administration desk and chirped the same warning tone, before turning around and moving away towards the far end of the hallway.

She let out the breath she didn't know she was holding in a long, slow stream. She had fully expected it to attack her. She expected it to shoot at her with that menacing looking laser she had seen before. But it had gone away.

"What was that about?" She heard Karr say, his voice shaky. "What did it want?"

"I don't know." Sally said, shaking her head. "But I'm following it."

She set off at a jog, the equipment bobbing on her back as she moved. Kanow followed without question and was at her side in mere moments, energized by the prospect of a development, which they all sorely desired.

"Come on!" he shouted back towards the others. "Let's move!"

The others reluctantly picked up and made their way after their commanders. There were a few whispers of discontent among the Marines, a few that spoke about how this was an entirely pointless mission. However, those whispers did not reach Sally's sensitive ears.

"Whenever Sentinels are around it usually means something big is in the area." she said between breaths to the ODST. "If this guy's here, it means that whatever's beyond that door must be worth protecting."

"It didn't fire on us, though." Kanow pointed out.

"Yeah, I saw that. Probably doesn't think we're a threat." She laughed, tapping the gun that hung from the sling.

" _That scanning beam you saw was probably to confirm you were a Reclaimer. A genetic passkey._ "

"Well it sure wasn't looking for a Human in image." the princess said, "I'm not going to argue."

Kanow craned his head around to see how far the others were. They were gaining, but were taking their time. Even from this distance, the ODST could sense their discomfort and malcontent. "Hey, Highness, I know we're on a good lead right now, but we need to make sure we find something we can work with, and do it soon."

"Shane, I understand that." Sally nodded. "If they're at their limit already, then we may have to work them back into shape. How long have we been here? A few hours at best? Trust me, I have a good feeling about this."

"Forerunner space magic in your head?"

"I was thinking more base intuition." she said, a slight sneer at the insinuation. "Where there's one Sentinel there's usually more. NICOLE, what do you think he meant when he pointed out that symbol?"

" _It's very much the same symbol we saw at the desk. I'm still translating that as Loss of Life._

"That can't be possible." she said, her eyes focused on the still retreating Forerunner defense drone. "We're still breathing; the air's still cool."

" _I'll need to look back into it_."

Something about NICOLE's tone seemed to cause Sally to look twice at the computer's housing. That seemed awfully short of her.

The Sentinel reached the far door and it opened up. At first, the division was small. A single column of light appeared, nearly blinding the Marines as it crept across the floor. Then that one column was accompanied by two more on either side. Panels retracted and some vanished into thin air. The light was brighter now, and in comparison to the relative darkness of the hallway, was immolating. The pair stopped, one hand lightly resting on their grips. Both of their visors polarized to protect their eyes, but within moments, they adjusted.

At once, Sally was hit with something that she was not ready for. When it hit her, her muscles loosened, her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath of the scent that now filled her consciousness. She had felt a calm breeze on her face.

A breeze.

Her eyes shot open, and now she took in what she saw.

Birds sang and a faint rustling of plants was on the cusp of audibility. Laying in front of her for what seemed like miles and miles was a meadow. Auburn-colored grass extended into a rolling sea, patches waving with the wind. Small squat trees that seemed like acacias dotted the near horizon while tall and elegant pines were near the edges of visibility reaching taller than those on her homeworld. It gave the odd impression of being on the savanna while at the same time being in a temperate mountain range. The meadow rolled ever so slightly, concave in its middle while gentle bumps covered the areas where she stood, as if someone had pressed in the very middle with a massive weight. Rocks were clustered in every direction, but were smooth glacial boulders set into the ground as if they belonged there. Far below her in the middle of the valley, a river snaked and cascaded into a large pool, the size of which she could not determine. A sound to her right caught her attention. She looked and saw that a stream was gently trickling down a series of rocky embankments, splitting into several falls that met in a pool and then flowed on its own path.

It was all so breathtakingly beautiful. She could find no fault in it no matter how hard she tried. She had lived among the woods all her life. The Great Forest held so many flora and fauna species all intertwined together that she could discern even the slightest departure from equilibrium, and yet here she could not. Everything had its place. Everything had its own fit, from the rivers to the grass to the odd trees and shrubs that poked up from the ground. All around the edges of her vision were marble-white stone cliffs that were curved, as if water had coursed through here eons ago and shaped the area upon which she stood.

She felt a vibration run up her spine, and she flushed. It was as if a lover had whispered softly into her ear. Pleasure she had not felt in so long had returned into her body. This was something she had not been expecting, here of all places. She knew of course that the Forerunners had a nigh impossible ability to squeeze life from even the deadest of rocks, but in any case she was simply astounded beyond words.

She couldn't take her eyes off of it. Even the structures lived in harmony with the nature. Silvery-grey buildings jutted from the ground, all of them with elegant angular surfaces, far removed from what she had seen even in the hallways they had just emerged from. The panels that composed them were almost like glass, reflecting light and the environment like a mirror. They almost resembled chapels or churches, with steeples that poked into the sky, which she noticed now with a soft intake of breath even had thin wispy clouds in it. She stared, trying to estimate how far into the sky the roof of this place was. It was impossible to tell. Was it one kilometer? One and a half?

She found the closest thing that resembled a chair - a small flat-topped boulder, and sat upon it. Her mind was wheeling, unprepared for all of this. She simply sat and took in the beauty of this area and how the sterility of the facility behind them was replaced by what was more or less a living and breathing environment. Even an approximation of a sun hung in the sky - obviously artificial she knew, but the source of light that was in the air looked, felt, and otherwise had the same effect on her as the real star that Mobius revolved around. Sally broke protocol and removed her helmet, letting her clipped hair flutter in the breeze. Where did that even come from? In the distance, a trio of birds called out, emitting a high-pitched trilling noise that carried over the grass.

Kanow was stunned into silence. He simply let his head turn around. Sally could not see his face. She could not know what he was thinking, but the way his shoulders drooped, and the way that his helmet softly turned this way and that spoke to a level of amazement that only came from a person that was in sheer awe of something.

Nobody said a word as the Marines congregated. They all just stood there, taking in the scenery. Karr, the first one to break this silence, said, "How did they do this?"

Sally shook her head, a wide smile on her face as she regarded the meadow. "I don't know." she shrugged. "But everything just feels good here."

Only now did she take note of the structure in the very middle of the meadow, set on an island located within the lake, completely massive and shaped like a Mayan pyramid, with layers and platforms surrounding it. Angular appendages stretched out over the water and connected to smaller buildings that pulsed with blue light, bright even from this distance. She was amazed that these appeared somewhat hazed out. She asked for assistance from NICOLE on this matter.

" _This is only a guess. I can't be sure unless I'm actually inside here, but just going off of the camera, I'm going to guess that this entire area is about sixteen kilometers across in diameter. Assuming a gentle curve, that ceiling is about two kilometers above us._ _There's 200 square kilometers of surface area here_."

Sally could only just stare.

The excited noise of the Marines became apparent to her. They jogged forward enamored by this sight, pointing, laughing, and smiling at everything all around them. A flock of alien birds took flight from the nearest tree and flew into the distance, a liquid-like caw escaping their beaks.

Sally's vision again returned to the pyramid-like structure at the middle of the massive area. It became apparent to her that this was perhaps the actual direction the scientists would have moved in. She thought this because it was the most notable of all the structures around her. As beautiful as the delta-shaped towered on the outskirts were, it was the aerodynamic church-looking one that held her gaze. Yes, she said. This was where they were headed. She just had a feeling about it.

"Can you tell what that building is?" she asked NICOLE.

" _Not a clue_." the AI responded. " _Given it's in the middle of this area, it's likely of great importance. I'm going to guess the Forerunner equivalent of an office space or even housing complex._ "

"Housing complex?" Sally said, raising an eyebrow.

" _Wouldn't you want to live here_?"

Sally looked around at the peace that surrounded her, and without a moment of hesitation, nodded. "Yeah, it wouldn't be out of the question. I mean, if you didn't tell me..." she said, waving her hand out and around. She took another deep breath in and this time found scents that were new to her, a cinnamon-like scent mixed with a peat-like twist that was not unappealing to her. The Humans could never understand that this vista was as much a feast for her nose as it was for her eyes. Cawl could recognize it, and seemed dragged around by each new smell and sound. He too had removed his helmet, and his ears whipped every which way, peaked as high as they could go.

Kanow walked up to her, hands on his hips, weight shifted to one side. "I know you're in love with this view, but we have to get moving." he said, gently, but with authority. "If NICOLE's right about the surface area, then we're going to be seeing a lot of this place before we find out what happened to Lindenberg."

"You're right." Sally said, nodding. With regret, she rose from the boulder and placed her helmet back on her head, making sure the straps were tight before running her VISR. The landscape was scanned by the software in her helmet. For a second, a grid appeared over the horizon, before data streamed in a line of text just under her compass at the height of her vision.

"OK, break time's over." she called out. "Let's get a move on."

"Where are we headed, Sergeant Major?" Vicci asked. "I mean, do we even have a guess at this point?"

Sally glanced around, looking for disturbances in the ground that may have indicated passage of Human beings. She failed to find them, but fifty yards away, she found the unmistakable sign of a stone path, perfectly hugging the ground. One direction headed into the foothills closer to the outer edges of the area. The other direction headed deeper into the depression. If it were Sally heading the expedition, she would have headed that way. It was the most notable thing here. They set out for the path, and as soon as they reached it, a sense of renewed energy set about them. Every now and again, small blue lights hovered a mere six inches above the path, and carved inscriptions were within the road at similar intervals.

Sally looked up and saw more Sentinels in the air, much like birds though their wings did not flap. There were flocks of them, dozens strong. They appeared coming in and out of the dome's accented supports. The supports, she noted, were not to keep the integrity of the dome from getting out, but to keep the massive stalactite-like buildings from falling from the ceiling.

Once again, she caught her breath. As soon as she was used to one aspect of this place, she was assaulted with a new phenomenon that humbled her even further. Inverted skyscrapers hung from the top of the dome, shadows cast on the clouds by the artificial light of this 'sun' that was slowly sinking towards the horizon.

She checked her watch out of reflex. The clock, it was clear, did not synch with this new place. It was almost five in the evening, but the sun was getting far lower than where it should have been. Perhaps this place had a shorter day than Mobius. Without realizing it, she yawned.

That made her think: this operation could actually take more than a day to complete. Perhaps it would take several days. This was not something that they had planned for. Though they did have MREs that would last them a few days, they didn't have much in the way of overnight equipment. By her estimate, they'd reach the center of the depression in an hour and forty-five minutes. By that time, they'd be in darkness. She didn't even know how what darkness would even look like here. Around her, she began to hear the sound of cricket-like creatures, soft cooing from nocturnal birds, and whistling from creatures that had no equivalent to her. The sky turned a deep orange, and before she knew it, stars began to appear.

They needed to find some sign of the scientists. She begged that they would need to find a lead, a shred of uniform before they lost all light, or they would be forced to stop for today and wait for the sun to rise. This thought was boggling to her since she knew what lay outside the hull of this verdant space.

"Guys, look up there." Karr said, pointing to the inverted skyscrapers.

The structures danced with lights, white, yellow, and blue. Pulsing interiors gave the land a soft sapphire glow before fading again into the gentle dark. They twinkled in the artificial night; the photons fighting through the air to meet their eyes. Constellations of these stars were on each hanging structure, glows overlapping with one another like a far distant skyline. Sally was immediately reminded of the towers of New York City, as if she was flying high above it all.

"Look!" Kanow said at once, pointing ahead. "Look! There!"

Sally broke her attention and squinted at where Kanow pointed. Even in this light, her vision was excellent. She saw the obvious profile against the tall grass. It was so clearly out of place that she knew they were on the right track. What Kanow had pointed out, was a campsite.

Sally gasped and immediately dropped a navpoint on the location. The camp was a bit below them, down a rolling hill. They ran as fast as they dared in the dark. One by one, helmet lights snapped on and illuminated the path, even though the stone walkway had its own source of visibility, extending like a chain of orbs stretching down the hill towards the streamlined structure in the center of the lake. That would have to wait.

The navpoint put the camp at only half a kilometer away. They made their best time down the walkway, noisily jogging without any desire for stealth. Their weapons and packs were bouncing, creating a shuffling noise that carried over the meadow for dozens of yards.

Slowly the NAVPOINT decreased in distance. By the time they were meters away, the sun had completely set, and the sky was an inky black-blue. Stars were shimmering, and insects of the night were in full symphony. Crescendos of noises rang in the background. Sally however could only hear the sound of her own breath in her ears as she continued to jog. When the counter reached zero, a soft beep chimed over her COMs. She bent forward and put her hands on her knees, breathing deeply. She hadn't run like that in a while, and the extra weight on her back didn't help matters. Sally took good care of herself, but she was amazed at how fast she could move when she was motivated.

Kanow and Cawl went forward, weapons up. They flipped the flashlights on and swept the muzzles around, projecting beams of light over the tents. They were absolutely Human, with numbers printed on the canvas coverings. In addition, boxes, crates, and barrels were scattered around the space.

"Got a dolly here." Cawl said. "Looks like a heavy model."

There was a yellow-painted device parked in a large gap between two tents. It was empty with the exception of one small crate, still locked. The wheels were clean, as if it were brought down the walkway.

"Camp's clear." Kanow said. "No sign of anyone. Hang on, I'll do a pulse scan."

Kanow stood still, his head turning around and looking in all directions. "Still nothing. No pings on anybody."

Sally, now frustrated, tapped her COM set. "Attention, attention, Site 417 Expedition, this is Rescue Element. Please respond."

Nothing on the line. Dead air came over the channel, with only the faintest static pop of the other Marines' open channels overlapping.

"Site 417 Expedition, Rescue Element. Respond please. UNSC AI Aida, please respond."

The static persisted. She was about to close the channel when a faint buzzing came in response. Her ears twitched and her nose perked in anticipation. The static rose for a brief moment before cutting out. There was no additional response. She jerked her head in anger and squelched the channel.

"Give it a break." Kanow said. "They didn't respond before, they won't now."

"This communication set should be good for dozens of miles." Sally responded. "At least a good hundred. I should have picked something up; anything. Here's the camp, Shane! It's right here for the Ancient's sake! We know they made it this far!"

Kanow regarded the camp, shining his light around on the interior of the tents, about five of them, able to hold ten scientists if they took two per each.

"They must have gone out at some point in the last week."

"Without radios?" Vicci asked. "That's poor planning. What if someone got hurt?"

What indeed. Sally noted that she saw no large fauna on their approach here. Only small creatures like birds, and she presumed, bugs. Still, there were plenty of opportunities to get hurt; the Corpsman was right. It was bad logistics to not have radios.

"Hey, remember Petty Officer, these guys are barely a step above civilian." Kanow pointed out. "I don't think that would have even occurred to them."

"Lindenberg would be too smart for that." Sally pointed out. "I refuse to believe someone with that degree of intelligence would overlook something so obvious."

"And you may be right, Sergeant Major." Kanow said. "Except those are the radios right there."

Sally's face slackened. She followed the light beam from Kanow's weapon to a large cot near what looked like a central working station, which itself was covered by a large canvas structure, presumably to give them shade in the day. On that cot, neatly lined up, were two dozen radios, some of them still in containers. Not a single one of them was turned on.

An electric silence passed through the camp. Sally stepped forward and grabbed one. She turned it over in her hands, checking to see if it was damaged, but the hardened plastic exterior seemed pristine. Even the paint of the manufacturer's logo seemed fresh. She tossed it to Karr, who caught it with his left hand deftly. "Give me a call on this. Broadcast on 44."

Karr turned the radio on. The device chimed as it did so. Sally tapped at her helmet and set up a specific broadcast channel. Karr turned the channel dial on the radio until he found the one that Sally specified. He took a few steps away so that there wouldn't be any false positive on the signal. He depressed the talk button and spoke into it, "Check."

The sound immediately came through to Sally alone, who picked up the sound with perfect clarity.

"They work." She said, disappointed. "They work just fine."

"You haven't tested the others yet." Vicci pointed out.

"I have a funny feeling they're all in working order." Sally said, her discontent growing. "OK, here's what we're going to do." she said, and glanced at her watch, only to find out that only fifteen minutes had passed since her last time check. It wasn't even seven yet, but night was already upon them. "We make camp here for the night."

Nobody argued. In fact, the instant she had declared it, the Marines began to unbuckle their packs and lower everything to the ground. She realized that this was very much what they wanted to hear.

"It's going to be too dark to go and look for them now. I think they went in the direction of the central structure," she gestured to the lit up building, "but I don't want to start any search pattern until tomorrow. Until then, I suppose we should get comfy. Everything's already set up. Keep your eyes open, there may be something that can tell us about what's going on."

For a camp run by archaeologists, it was quite cozy. All around were non-perishable meals in boxes, portable water coolers, a rude recreation area with soft padded chairs, laptops on a large fold-out table and what could only be described as a boombox. In addition to the sleeping and work tents, electronic equipment had been set up on the opposite end. This included laser surveyors, mass spectrometers, portable molecular analyzers, and interestingly enough, what was apparently labeled as a 'Space-time Fold Analyzer'. This one was new to Sally. She read the stuck-on warning labels as well as operation instructions and was interested to figure out that this device contained a portable Slipspace core that, according to the small manual she found, would check for knots within the folds of space-time where interactions with higher-dimensional space were more common than normal. What this meant for certain, she was not sure; this was Miles' domain. However, the density of this equipment, which doubtless must have run up eight figures on the conservative side, was enough to tell her that Lindenberg found this trip to be exceptionally interesting indeed, and that was before they had even found out where the terminus had led. She checked her watch again. It was getting late. Perhaps it was a good time to simply shut down for the night. There really wasn't much else to be done while the valley was shrouded in this darkness. Only now did she even think that the stars above her were artificial, or even projected from the skies beyond.

"NICOLE, can you analyze the stars above us?"

" _Yeah, that's no problem. Why?_ "

"It could tell us where we are, if I'm right of course."

" _Slick idea. OK, this is actually amazing. This is probably the only way you'd even get starlight like this given where we are. I can't believe it, they actually accounted for stellar drift._ "

"These are the stars right now?"

" _Yup. Same stars you'd see from the surface of Egarda. Sal, we're still in the Kepler-20 system._ "

She let out another breath. "That's good. Thought we were thrown on the other side of the galaxy or something for all we knew."

" _You think that could have happened_?"

"Well, that's not what happened." She shrugged, walking back towards the camp. She slid the backpack off the harnesses of her armor and placed it near the large work table. She flipped on a few lights, bathing the area in a gentle warm orange. She could see the others claiming places to sit.

"Someone give Roberts and Taylor a call." she ordered. Kanow, she saw, nodded and placed a finger to his COM set. "Drop a NAVPOINT on the camp. At least they'll have something to look forward to." She continued to strip off the armor, leaving her only in her BDU pants, boots, and T-shirt. It felt so good to let the rest of her body breathe. She smelled awful after walking around in the desert and in the extensive Forerunner halls. She didn't care though. Tonight, she was going to enjoy this. The nagging truth of this camp though hadn't escaped her, and she didn't let her guard down that much. There was still a lot of work to be done. "Someone get some..." she began before trailing off.

She had wanted to send a runner out to find loose wood, branches, twigs, and whatever they could find to start a fire. What she hadn't expected was what looked like a neatly organized pile of birch logs stacked underneath what looked like a tarp. A tarp? Did it rain here as well?

Something was off about this, and it was slowly becoming more apparent to her. She was aware that when she would lay down to sleep this night, if it could be called night after all, she would be sleeping in a bed meant for another person. Whether that person actually would return at all, made her shiver in the warm and pleasant night air of the valley.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
March 15, 3240, 2017 hours  
The Valley, Forerunner Station  
Kepler-20 System

It was one thing to be told that people needed to be saved. A person could be anybody, with an unknown appearance, life, or personality. The overarching desire to protect the faceless civilian was something that all soldiers had been engendered with since the dawn of civilization. It was quite another thing entirely when one placed a face to the name, background to the appearance, or depth to the otherwise surface-level generalization of who that person was. Within this camp, there had been people. Not just scientists, Sally mused as she sat on the fold-out chair that had been left behind, but actual living, breathing people.

She had read the initial reports back at Site 417, but in all of those personnel records, never once had she actually gotten the sense of just who those people actually were. She had been thinking as a professional and had acknowledged them as the mission and nothing more. However, now that she was here, she saw a side that no report or personnel file could ever hope to replicate - the Human side.

A fire crackled in a dug-out pit to one side. Here, the men and women of her team were sitting, laughing, and telling stories to one another about missions, deployments, boot camp follies, and most importantly, what their lives were like on the outside; the 'real world' as they called it. They were eating MREs and taking generous drinks from their water packs, knowing that they could resupply. Sally thought it was a bit inconsiderate to dip into the supplies of the camp, but somebody had to use them. It was clear the actual tenants weren't around much to do that.

She wasn't participating. Not right away. She was in the area where the scientists had sat around the large fold out table. Paperwork lay scattered on the surface. Ten different forms of handwriting, and in three different languages - including one she could not identify - were on these documents. She looked at one of them. The name written on the top of the sheet said 'Martin Gilpatrig'. She noted the shifted spelling of the name first, the fact that this must have been the man who had dropped the water bottle second, and then the content of the paper last of all. It appeared to be a report on what the team had seen on their first few days. She had read some of these documents in the hours before, but only now was she taking more than a cursory glance. Gilpatrig had done laser surveys of the area, which explained the equipment. The area was not sixteen kilometers in diameter, but was actually 20.451. This made the surface area far larger at 328.5 square kilometers. Gilpatrig's writing was excited, and his handwriting wavered in that emotion. Her sight froze when he even suggested the possibility that perhaps an identical structure existed underneath their feet on the opposite side, the two terrariums drawn together by a common gravitational core. That was too much for her to contemplate. Though Sally had been on the surface of a Halo, a massive structure in its own right, this was its own shade of mesmerizing.

She briefly looked at some of the other sheets. Another, written by one of the other RAs, Kostinger, the man in the hologram, Sally remembered, was piled neatly on top of other sheets. They all listed daily inventories for the camp. This was interesting; she had not seen this one personally. Perhaps one of the other Marines may have run across it and dismissed it as boring. Sally on the other hand saw this as an excellent piece of information. It would tell her how long the camp had been here. She smiled at the simple brilliance of it. Kostinger, she remembered, was the RA that had taken initial stock, and had informed the camera that he had requisitioned side-arms for the expedition.

Her ears perked. She had forgotten about that.

"Hey," she called over her shoulder, "Hey, guys?"

Kanow stood, his finely chiseled features accented sharply by the fire. "Yeah, what's up?" he asked, raising his voice to account for the din of the others.

"Shane, you run across a strongbox with a lock on it or something? Maybe it's code locked?"

The ODST turned his head to the side, eyes raised as he thought long and hard. "No. I didn't see anything. Why, what's in that box?"

"Ten loose handguns now out there in the wild." Sally groaned. So they took the hardware, but not the radios. "Thanks, Captain. Do me a favor and keep your eyes open for those, hey?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem." the ODST said. He hesitated, and then trudged over to her, massive muscled arms swinging as he moved around the piled up armor and backpacks. He came around to see her. "You want to come on over and have a bite or something? You've been here for an hour, maybe more."

"Yeah, I'll come by. I'm just doing some reading."

"What did you find?"

"Take a look at this. Looks like we have a hard date on when the Site 417 expedition came through here. This guy Kostinger took notes on everything that the expedition had. Food and water by the pound, and he accounted for every bullet in those handguns. Check this out, he even made a deployed and stored column. Guess that makes him the team quartermaster."

"Kept his letters nice and ordered, nothing above the half line; Jesus Christ, the guy has the exact same stroke distance when he crosses his 'T's."

Sally looked up and him and smiled. "Fortunately for us the guy was anal retentive." she shifted through the papers, making sure to keep them more or less ordered as she found them. "First mentioned date was... March 7th."

"That's eight days ago." Kanow quickly calculated.

Sally's finger went to the sheet. "But the first date mentioning deployment of the camp here was one day later."

"So for three days these guys were wandering around before they found this place? Where were they sleeping?"

"No idea." she sighed. "The other logs mention the unpacking of all the equipment, but Kostinger just runs the numbers. Attentive, not descriptive." she shuffled the papers and left them there, her attention caught by something else. There was a smaller table with a chair set beside it. As before, she had glanced at many of these things. She knew that this was the desk of Doctor Rosa Lindenberg, but she did not have a chance to actually see what was there. There were items yes, but just what they meant for the person they belonged to was a different matter entirely. She slid into the chair, sitting as the doctor would. A binder of daily reports was set aside. This was not what she looked at though. Instead, what dominated her attention were two pictures on the desk. The first of which was a smiling little boy. He was small, maybe about three or four, with a wide grin. One incisor was missing, and his blue eyes fit well with the messy golden hair that he had. In the other shot, she saw a family together. Three people together. Rosa was on the left, a pretty woman with a slender face, blond hair in a bun, wearing an outfit meant for a walk in the park. The little boy was in the middle, and on the right, a tall, handsome, rugged man who could only be the doctor's husband.

Sally regarded the man. She had become very good at seeing the beauty of the Human face when it presented itself. Rosa had been a very lucky woman. The man was graying slightly at the temples and at the top near his short but thick hair, though the age wasn't apparent in the face. A boyish smile crossed his creaseless face as he stared into the camera.

She smiled at the family, cherishing the wholesomeness of it all. Her gaze went to the child and how happy he looked. She was immediately reminded of her own little boy, and imagined a young Freddy taking the child's place. The scene changed so that her own fantasy replaced it. Herself, her love, and their little one all holding hands, their happiness preserved in this moment. Her hand went to her ring again, gently rubbing her fingers around the band. The ring gave her comfort, but not as much as she wanted. She was also faintly aware that Kanow was watching her and seeing her internal conflict made visible on her face. He did not speak though, instead taking a few steps away and looking at another desk.

Rosa, a devoted mother and wife, working hard to benefit her far distant family. Kostinger, wasting no moment to ensure that his colleagues were properly cared for and their job efficient, Drakov, a lover of baseball and a devout Christian, boasting a large crucifix inside of his tent. Booker, haunted by his own fears of professional inadequacy in the face of others he worked with. Even this small slice of these men and women added purpose to what the Marines were supposed to do here. These were names no longer to Sally, and this pushed her to want to find them. Many of these people had photos of their loved ones; Rosa was no exception. Boys and girls, sometimes a few in the pictures, were standing, watching their parents proudly from photographs.

She would not let them suffer the loss of their mothers and fathers. She would bring them back to their little ones.

"Do you have children, Shane?" Sally asked, her voice low and rusty, as if she had not spoken for several days.

"Sorry?" the ODST asked, attention snapping back to the princess.

"Kids? You've got kids?"

The ODST hesitated, and shook his head. "Sorry, no. Why, what's up?"

"The longer I'm on this job the longer I'm seeing that this isn't just for the UNSC or the Frontier Corps. Humanity is going to lose a lot more than just scientists and brilliant minds if we don't do our job. It puts things in perspective."

"We're going to do this." the Marine responded. "Are you going to be OK?"

Sally breathed softly, but nodded.

"Who was he?" Shane asked.

"What?" Sally asked, before looking down to her hand and seeing that her fingers were still rubbing the band. "A beautiful man." she responded. She did not want to tell him that he had fought alongside the man who even now wore the counterpart to her ring. Though Kanow must have known of his passing, he probably never guessed the connection. She would keep it this way. "I'm going over in just a second. Give me a few more minutes."

"Right, sure. Better get over before the MREs are all gone. Those guys have already inhaled the mac n' cheese as well as the roast beef."

"Oh say it ain't so; not the roast beef." Sally said, rolling her eyes, knowing quite well the taste of that particular meal.

Kanow let a rare smile slip past his stoic exterior and he walked away, taking a seat next to the fire.

There was still something here. She could feel it. Something she missed. Written records were good, but there had to be another video recording. If these people went through the trouble of recording earlier in the facility, they would doubtlessly do it here. This social media bait if ever she saw it. She looked at the hanging structures thinking about where such a recorder would be.

She got up, taking one more look at the picture of the little boy. Though she left the work table, she had gone to the tents, located behind the Marines around the fireside.

"Hey what's up, Sergeant Major?" Taylor asked, spoon of soup halfway to his mouth.

"Checking something out. Eat. Eat." she said, gesturing to the group.

"Don't have to tell me twice." The other chipmunk said, bobbing his eyebrows and sucking down the hot liquid.

She entered a tent. She didn't bother going to Lindenberg's. She of all of them would have taken anything to record what she could. What she would look for would be one of the RA's tents. They could have possibly forgotten something.

She entered the tent shared by Drakov, and another named Ollie Brynjolfsson, a young researcher who hailed from Terran Scandinavia. Only nineteen, this would have probably blown the young man's mind. Drakov kept his side of the tent free and clean of everything but the essentials. A clock displayed the current Universal Time, and a small pile of folded clothes sat on the ground, tucked into a corner. On Ollie's side though, Nordic charms and books were nearly arranged. Sally couldn't speak these languages, though she guessed that the text was either Icelandic or Norwegian. She really didn't know how to distinguish the two, yet considered them rather amazing to listen to. She had known a Norwegian starship captain, who at every opportunity spoke in his native tongue. Such a language didn't really exist on Mobius, and if it had, probably had been spoken by the Lost Million's descendants before the Dark Ages, though died out when those Humans had. On top of one of Ollie's books was a pendant shaped like a hammer. Sally recognized it as the hammer Mjolnir, wielded by the god Thor. Though their language was dead on Mobius, Scandinavian religious concepts were still known. It seemed Ollie was a modern practitioner of this religion of the Old Norse Gods.

But this pendant was not what she was looking for. She checked among the books, careful not to knock them over. She didn't find it, but then got a strange desire to look under the pillow of the sleeping bag. She placed a hand underneath, and felt something rigid and artificial. She smirked and pulled the datapad from underneath. She messed around with it and found that it was unlocked as well. Her decision to look for the youngest and inexperienced paid off well. Though acutely aware she was snooping, she rationalized that this was to establish some sort of visual representation as to what was going on. She tapped the screen and quickly found the video folder. The latest video was, just as the written reports displayed, was about a week ago. She tapped the screen and the file played.

A young man, barely more than a boy, filled the screen, smiling at the camera. His face was round, cherubic, alabaster-pale, and covered with a fine black hair. His eyes were bright green, almost incandescent. When he spoke, it was in Standard English, though the hints of his Scandinavian tongue was present in his pronunciation.

 _"OK, ah, this is March 7th, 3240. This is Ollie, and oh man this is amazing! This is, oh man this is something else! I mean, look at this!_ "

The camera screen moved to the front of the tent, and the light of day made itself known. Ollie moved the camera out into the camp and pointed the camera at the same beautiful vista they had seen hours earlier. Except this time, the hanging skyscrapers were _moving_. Sally leaned her head in, eyes narrowing and mouth dropping.

Millions of tons worth of metal or whatever they were was gently descending from the roof, spreading out and among the sky, shadows dancing on the hills far below. The same blue light they saw in the night was brightened to be visible in the day, and a cloud of vapor extended from the gigantic mass of engineering.

" _It, you know, wasn't doing anything like this last night, or the day before. This is kind of different! Doc! Doctor! Hey, camera's running. You see this?_ "

Sally saw that the camera had fallen on Lindenberg, dressed in the same type of expedition clothing that they had observed in the previous message. She was looking up at the same phenomenon that the recording was made for.

Rosa turned to the camera. " _Yes Ollie, I'm looking at it right now!_ "

" _Making this for posterity, Doctor! Maybe we can get this as part of a doctoral thesis on Forerunner ruins or something! What do you think that is?_ "

Rosa tilted her head from side to side. " _It's the most interesting thing. My first thought would be that it's some sort of fertilization system that keeps the plants fresh and growing, even after all this time. It's almost like snow_ , _or mist I think_."

Sentinels of all sorts whipped past the scientists. Several stopped what they were doing and watched them fly up into the descending mist. Not only that, but the sky began to thicken. The distant roof began to disappear in roiling clouds.

" _Oh wow._ " Rosa said. " _Oh look at this_."

" _What's this_?" Ollie asked.

" _Just wait a moment_." the head scientists said, closing her eyes and just standing still.

Soon, Sally heard it, a soft patter. Starting first like the tapping of fingers, but then increasing to a drumline. Rain had begun to fall. First in a drizzle, and then in a near downpour. Ollie began to laugh heartily, turning the camera back on himself.

" _Rain! Rain! In a place like this!_ " he said, absolutely beaming. " _If only there was some lightning. Maybe we could get a bit of help from Tor here._ "

No lightning, nor the subsequent thunder came, and it confused Sally. At the rate the rain was coming down, there should have been some sort of static build-up to create some.

" _Ollie, you might want to put that away."_ Rosa said, the camera turning back on her. " _It's going to get wet and that's pretty..._ "

She trailed off. Among the rain, and Sally strained to hear it, was a sound of some sort. A sound that she couldn't identify right away. It was small, low at first. but then grew. It was the call of an animal of some sort. It had to be, but it was so crisp and clear that it could be heard over the rain.

" _That sounded close_." a new scientist said, coming into the frame; the one she recognized as Drakov. "What was that?"

The call continued. This time, it altered pitch, first going high, then going low. Almost as if it was on a scale. This alternation continued at different rates, and at different tempos, becoming a call that had never been heard before by man.

" _That... that's some animal call._ " Rosa said. " _What is that?_ _Aida, can you identify that_?"

" _There is no animal that call corresponds with within my database_." the AI reported.

Then a second call joined the first, and then a third. A trio of voices, seemingly never-ending called out from the rain, so hauntingly beautiful that Sally had to stop herself. Her eyes were growing unfocused and her breathing became long and shallow. She was hypnotized by this adagio that she couldn't discover the source of.

" _That's... I've never heard anything like it_." Rosa said dreamily.

" _It's amazing."_ Ollie added. " _I want to hear it up close._ "

Drakov came into the shot. " _Are you kidding? It's coming down out there! I don't know how, but we're going to catch our deaths of cold if we go out there!_ "

A fourth voice joined in, and suddenly the sound shifted into something that defied explanation. It became melodic and achieved a crescendo.

Drakov twitched, first once, then twice, as if deciding what to do. When his voice came, it was wavering. " _Whatever's making that music... I... don't want to leave the camp this late, but... Doctor, could we perhaps pinpoint its location_?"

Rosa nodded energetically. " _Yes! We don't know if they're going to stop! I hope it doesn't! Whatever creatures are making those, it'll be amazing to document them for the first time here!_ "

" _Aren't we archaeologists_?" someone from outside the frame called. " _Not zoologists_?"

" _We are explorers!_ " Lindenberg called, her glasses flashing in the light of the fire. " _We have to see this up close. Bring hats or tarps as umbrellas. If we leave now, we can get to the sound in maybe an hour's walk. Anyone who wants to come with me, you can do it now._ "

The song continued, almost in measure as a new call began. This was enough to dislodge even the sternest and stone-hearted of listeners. It was unlike any music Sally had ever heard that graced her ears.

" _I'm going_." Ollie said, before turning the camera on himself one more time. His face was wet, but not with the rain. " _Oh man, I look like a complete pansy. Who cares. It's like Valkyries singing._ "

The video ended, and the screen cut to black. Sally's jaw worked from side to side, struggling to make sense of it. She plucked NICOLE out and asked her, "What do you make of this?" before playing the portion with the animal song. NICOLE's hologram moved back and forth, swaying as if determining a beat. Her eyes closed and her ears ducked back, almost as if she were feeling a great pleasure. A simulated one perhaps, but one that felt almost authentic to her.

"It's got something to it I can't pin down. This is almost mathematical. Your ears can't hear it, but the auditory waves, they're almost like quadratic charts. There are sines, divisions, asymptopes, and fractals in the music. Whatever animal this is..." she said, not even completing her thought. The AI was stumped.

Sally was impressed: NICOLE had been stopped short by music.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, she was sitting by the fire, slowly eating a bowl of canned soup. She had debated whether to dip into the scientist's stock of supplies, but realized that someone was going to eat it one way or another. If not Humans or Mobians, then the local fauna. It was a good soup, clam chowder, a surprisingly good can as well. She moaned appreciatively as she swallowed a spoonful of potato and cream, eagerly taking another dip. Around her, everyone was laughing and telling stories. They had just finished up a story about how Taylor had been on deployment and had cleared a room. The only thing was the room had been a bathroom in their FOB. They had breached the room, clearing the area, and ended up frightening a drill instructor that had been in one of the stalls. Apparently the whole thing was done as a joke for a video, and the subsequent smoking of the century was caught on camera.

"Oh my God we were dying laughing." Taylor said, wiping an eye as he told the story. "He kept on screaming, but that didn't stop us. We were just busting out laughing every time we did pushups. Oh he hated us. Then the SDI heard about it. We stopped laughing after that."

The group chuckled, and in the silence, they kept eating.

"Anybody else got any good ones?" Sally asked. "Captain, you got any good stories in boot camp?"

Kanow, who was leaning in and looking at the fire, thought long and hard. Then he said, "Phase One, about maybe eight or nine days after I got in, I drew fire watch in our squad bay. I was standing opposite of the other recruit that was joining me that night. So I was standing there, at attention, watching the other end of the hall. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm waiting for my shift to finish up so I can get some shut eye. It's quiet. Then, I hear a whisper in my ear, 'What's the proper greeting of the day?'"

"Oh no." Vicci said.

"I said 'What?'.", Kanow said. "Then all I heard was ' _Proper greeting of the day! Proper greeting of the day! Aaah! Greeting of the day!_ ' at two-thirty in the goddamn morning!" he said, cracking up. "So I say, _'Attention on deck, good morning, sir!_ ', then I get shit for being loud when everyone's trying to sleep. Oh, everyone's pissed at me, and they're trying to get back to sleep. The DI forces me to shake everyone awake and apologize for being loud. So I got shit for not responding when spoken to, got shit for not addressing the DI properly, got shit for being loud, and got shit for not noticing when he snuck up on me."

The laughter was genuine and strong. Humor that only those in service could understand.

"Like, I shook one guy and said, 'Hey sorry man, I was too loud', and he looks at me and he says 'I fucking hate you.'" Kanow said before covering his mouth to stop the donkey-like bray that just couldn't be stopped in time.

Sally, about to take another sip of her soup, took in too much and started to cough wildly.

"Breathe!" Cawl said, giving her a slap on the shoulder.

Even Karr seemed to be enjoying himself, a peeled open can of beans in his hands. His glasses were off, giving them all the first view of his azure eyes. A soft smile crossed his face as he ate and listened to the stories. Sally felt bad for him. She had dragged him along because she thought he had done something horrible, but it was clear now he was just a confused and scared guy who just wanted to do his job, even with his track record. She was happy he was getting comfortable.

"What about you, Sergeant Major?" Cawl asked. "Got any good boot camp stories?"

Sally stopped her eating. "Ah, I was at Fort Acorn. That's where I did my training."

No response. Fort Acorn had been the first UNSC training ground established on Mobius, and as a result, it was also the first attacked by Doctor Julian Kintobor, also known as Robotnik to the Kingdom of Acorn. Almost everyone at the fire knew what happened there.

"Hey, what's that?" Karr asked, pointing at some of the trees behind the camp. There was a rustling in those leaves.

Sally made a slight move for her sidearm. It could have been a Sentinel, but it could be something else. She popped the lock on her holster, but before she could clear the weapon, the thing in the trees made a noise. It was a chattering sound. One she recognized. Something familiar.

"Is that what I think it is?" Roberts asked.

A grey squirrel emerged from the leaves and perched on a thick branch hanging over the camp. It chattered loudly as it looked over these new visitors. It skittered farther along the branch before dropping down near the fire. It sat there, unafraid of these new visitors, looking around, tail quivering in interest.

"What is that doing here?" Taylor asked.

"What is it?" Karr asked.

Eyes went towards the J&L agent.

"What, I don't know what it is; I'm not from the same planet as you people."

"That, is a squirrel." Kanow said. "A Terran Squirrel. As in, from Earth."

The little creature sniffed the air, crawling around, looking for something to eat. Sally didn't know if squirrels ate potatoes, but the little guy looked hungry. It grumbled as it tried to dig at the ground and looked in bags. She scooped up a bit of potato from the soup and leaned over, holding it in front of the squirrel. Smelling the cooked spud, the rodent crept closer, nose twitching.

"Come on." Sally said softly. "Come on, it's for you."

It came right up to the spoon, nose an inch from the potato. It sniffed several times, grumbled, and began to lick at the creamy broth instead.

"No?" the princess asked. "That's good stuff!"

"He's not scared at all." Cawl said. "Normally you can't get one of those little guys to stay still."

"Is that weird?" Karr asked.

"Not usual, that's for sure." Kanow said, taking a drink of water. "I wonder if, you know, the Forerunners did something to these animals."

"What do you mean?" Roberts asked. "Like, made them friendly?"

"These are the Forerunners that work with animals, Roberts." The ODST said. "Maybe they engineered them to be friendly. Make it like everyone who walks through that door is Snow White and all those little woodland creatures start singing and dancing."

"That would make this place even better." Vicci said. "Friendly animals, beautiful scenery; would be a great place to unwind for a few weeks. The Forerunners were spoiled rotten. Apparently they like squirrels too. Score one for Earth critters."

"I'll drink to that." Taylor nodded.

Karr looked at the creature drinking the broth and then to Sally. Then he did it again, this time looking a bit closer.

"If you say this is a distant cousin of mine," Sally warned, "I'm going to kick your ass to that center island."

"It does look like you."

"Long story." Cawl said.

"I mean, looking at you two side by side, it looks like a before and after shot for a protein shake ad."

Shane spat water out and covered his nose.

As the laughter continued and as the little pocket of life reveled in this brief moment of peace, the hanging columns pulsed blue over the grass, over the trees, and illuminated the lake that the central structure was settled on. Sentinels streaked over the skies like shooting starts towards the structure, and like a breeze that built into a wind, the first notes of a mournful song began to play, like a choir of angels calling out from on high.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: The following chapter has been edited by Zoggeriffic. I appreciate his support and interest in the project and I'm grateful for that.**

* * *

Chapter 7  
March 16, 3240, 0540 hours  
The Valley, Forerunner Station  
Kepler-20 System

They broke camp at first light. Within moments, the expedition had gathered their supplies; recently augmented from the civilians'. Their next goal was the largest and most identifiable landmark in the valley; central island. The most likely destination of the scientific team.

In the mistiness of the artificial dawn, the party made their way back to the central stone path. Though the faint light from the floating blue orbs provided a source of illumination, the narrow path wasn't as clear as it was when they had entered the terrarium. They had to watch each step along the treacherous path which at times devolved into narrow catwalks, forcing them to move single file down the track as it hugged the rolling hills.

Sally looked about, amazed at the lush greenery about her and speculated the stations' landscaping protocols had activated overnight although she immediately discounted it given how natural it looked. On the tall amber grass, drops of dew concentrated, slowly rolling down when the globs of liquid grew fat and leaving glistening trails that refracted the light like prisms.

Nobody said a word as they walked, and to break up the monotony of the march; Sally occasionally drew sips from a can of cola taken from the rations of the camp. A caffeinated beverage that simultaneously energized like a sports drink while sending caffeine coursing through her veins; a favorite among special forces. She grinned at the can, noting how Coke had survived just about everything time and the universe threw at it.

Though there had been even more supplies ranging from raw coffee beans and cartridges among the civilian camp's supplies, the party unanimously agreed to leave them all behind. They did however take single-meal packages to replace the ones that had been expended the night before so that their weight was the same whence they came.

Upon finding a suitably flat area, Sally had the team take a well-deserved breather.

As she settled down onto the lush green grass, Sally lamented a distinct lack of portable showers or toilet units. She ran a hand over grungy fur, sipped on her drink and grimaced at how sugary it tasted. After getting back in a daily routine of washing, bathing, and subsequent grooming, getting back into the field where the prospect of a warm shower on-mission was rare rubbed her the wrong way. She reminded herself that in her younger days she had regularly been in these situations and had to improvise when out and about. This meant living with body odor, washing in rivers, and relieving herself wherever it was convenient.

She drew another draw-out sip from the pack and felt rather self-conscious when she realized she needed to ration out their remaining supplies. Furthermore, ingesting any more caffeine would likely throw off her internal biological clock which would need time to adjust to the convincing artificial sunlight. The disk of light that mocked the star just outside of this hardened hull appeared to be out on the horizon, perhaps only a little larger than Aurora on the horizon of the great West Sea. She could swear she could feel the actual heat from it as if it were a real star and for a moment forgot where she was; every second here was an adventure unlike the rest.

There was a loud hum in the air. A lone sentinel emerged over the hills down towards the middle of the valley. Sally watched warily as the lone sentinel was joined by several more of its mechanical compatriots and the steady soothing hum morphed into a far more

"Man a lot more of those guys today." Roberts said. "What's eating them?"

Sally shrugged. "Who knows what's running in that hardware of theirs. Can you tell us what they're saying to each other, NICOLE?"

"Their coding language is one I haven't seen before. I suppose that it's a completely different coding lexicon than the Sentinels I've seen on Installation 05. Must have been written just for this facility."

"Here's what I don't understand." Kanow said, grunting in annoyance. "Why the hell do you go out of your way to make everyone speak another language on just one station: The writing is in a different language, the drone coding is in a different language. Why?"

"Secrecy would be my number one guess, Captain." NICOLE responded. "Limit what your enemy knows about a location. If you can't read or speak the language, that makes intercepting messages much more difficult."

"And... uh, what enemies would that be?" Roberts piped in.

"Well, they weren't many who could challenge the Forerunners but they were a few: The Flood and the First Empire. And given how the station is still here after everything," Sally noted, "I'd say that their little plan worked."

"Hey check it out." she heard Cawl say from halfway back in the column, "Is that the little guy from last night?"

Sally cocked to her side. In the nearby pine trees, she spotted movement between the branches and instantaneously recognized the squirrel. The little rodent was keeping pace with the Marines, jumping from tree to tree, chattering wildly, trying to get close. As it reached a suitable vantage, the little creature leapt over the path and onto the opposite pines. It let loose a squeak as it hung there and watched the strange creatures passing below.

"Looks like he has a crush on you." Cawl said.

The squirrel leapt and landed square on Sally's shoulder. The princess promptly let out a startled squeak but the little animal held on and kept on chattering, looking around and at her occasionally. She heard laughing behind her, but kept her pace. She pushed her helmet back up and kept walking, lips pushed together in a pout.

"Little guy smells a squirrel but doesn't see squirrel!" Vicci joked.

"Close then." Sally said tersely. "My dad's a squirrel. I'm chipmunk on my mother's side."

"How the hell does that work?" Karr asked, two positions behind the princess.

"What?"

"You're from two different animals?"

"We prefer the term genii, or even species." Sally corrected. "Genus for singular. Animal implies we aren't sapient creatures. A common thing to overlook, but we're not fans of that."

"Oh, I'm... sorry I guess."

"Don't be sorry. You didn't even know what a squirrel was until last night."

"So..."

"Yeah, I don't fully know how it works. When we interbreed, the resulting child tends to end up one way or the other but they tend to match the gender of the parent. For example my..." She swallowed nervously.

"What?" Karr asked.

"My... brother is a squirrel." she continued recovering seamlessly. "So I'm female, I ended up like my mom, and my brother ended up like my dad."

She didn't feel quite as uncomfortable talking about Elias now on the other hand, even though he was even today still lost, probably somewhere in space. Sally had a sneaking suspicion that if he was gone this long, maybe he didn't want to be found. He was still alive though; that she was sure of beyond a shadow of a doubt. She loved her brother dearly and wanted so badly to tell him he had become an uncle.

"So... what happens if a Human... you know..."

"It's probably more complicated." Sally admitted.

The little squirrel hung on as they walked deeper into the valley. Above, the sun shone brightly bathing the travellers with pastels of orange. The air was filled with birdsong as the countless avians native to multiple worlds sang out. Several of them flew over the heads of the expedition letting loose a loud and obnoxious squawk as they did so. Twice, they found themselves crossing over light-bridges which spanned the embankment of the river.

One such bridge took them right next to a waterfall which was nestled in a copse of alien trees that grew as straight as a pole with fuzzy clumps of cotton-like leaves.. It was the oddest collections of plants that she had seen, but even these were somewhat comforting. There was nothing here that seemed overly alien, and that pleased her.

Forerunners, Humans, and Mobians too it seemed shared a certain sense of aesthetics. Sometimes, Sally wondered how Humans could stand living on worlds orbiting red stars where the grass, trees, and leaves came in shades of black, red, and brown. Green was the best color there was for a plant, no question.

"Where's your home, little guy?" she whispered "You're a long way off from where we found you." The creature didn't respond, but it did scratch itself with its hind leg, eyes closing in satisfaction. "To think, my people came from little things like you. It must be wonderful not having a care in the world. Bet all you care about when you wake up is 'nuts'. Hope you don't have a little squirrel lady waiting for you."

As the group walked, the trees gave way to a series of Forerunner structures set at strange geometric angles and their hard glass-like material shimmered in the light. Within these self-contained terrariums were exotic-looking plants kept in neat rows. Machinery within these long and beveled greenhouses held containers of unknown gasses or liquids, spraying them every now and again. Though it looked fragile, Sally knew these structures were built to last. Sally marvelled at the sight. The Forerunners were creative engineers but Sally knew the principles of construction were age-old. There must have been massive external ribbing she reasoned and a quick examination seemed to lend support to her hypothesis. At one end of the greenhouse, a sloping tower extended into the air, blinking red every now and again.

As they passed into a clearing, once more crossing the river, dozens more greenhouses appeared, clustered in twos or threes. Perhaps these carefully curated plants grew in entirely alien environments. That was of exceptional interest to her mind.

She glanced behind her. Though she could see everyone in the column, her focus was further back. The valley sloped back up towards the horizon, so that they were closer into the middle of this massive bowl that only the day before they had been standing at the very top of. The river they had crossed over several times climbed back up the edge of the valley and the dozens of waterfalls provided a rough guestimate of the distance they had travelled.

She tried to spot the campsite, but it was impossible. The thick trees, constantly changing elevation, and the distance made it far too difficult. Up above, the columns she had seen looked to be directly overhead. Streams of Forerunner drones crossed in and out of the superstructure.

The clouds above were thick and fluffy, much like any other pleasant day, and at the top of the terrarium, two kilometers above if not more, seemed to fake a far more distant surface.

They must have travelled at least another hour.

They weren't moving in a straight line which meant that the time it took to reach the middle was longer than the hour and a half that was estimated. It was a simple calculation really: travel time was measured by distance divided by velocity. They were moving at just under five-kilometers per hour; It was a roughly twenty-kilometer diameter, ten in radius, which meant that this walk should only take an hour and thirty minutes. However, with the rough terrain that number increased quickly.

It was apparent the river was too wide to traverse except by bridge. It seemed remarkably deep, though its crystal clear surface made it seem much shallower.

At this distance, the middle structure seemed to grow larger and larger to at least a hundred meters or more into the sky. The simple and smooth surface had become far more crenulated and detailed. Smaller structures and spires jutted from each tier like teeth on a jawbone, creating a metallic version of the hanging gardens. However, unlike the ancient structures of Babylon, this was far more alien than anything else she had seen

The support beams she had seen from the camp proved just as massive as the superstructure before her. It spanning almost a kilometer from the central structure and on thee close-up she saw there were pipes and survey equipment built into the struts along with many others she couldn't fathom. Some of the sub-support structures dipped into the water and more of them jutted into the side of the mountains. Yet, for all its complexity the construction blended seamlessly with the environ. If she wasn't looking for it, she wouldn't have seen them. As she examined the structure, tunnels and access corridors began to become visible closer to the Forerunner building.

Sentinels floated in and out from these tunnels and dotted among them were swarms of c-shaped drones NICOLE called 'Constructors' were flitting about, searching for things to repair.

The sounds of wildlife were far greater here, approaching levels that she had heard in the rainforests of Southamer. It seemed that this was a nexus of activity and that many animals settled down here, possibly because of the flowering plants and fruit-bearing trees that grew in incredible abundance near the shores of the vast lake which stretched on for miles.

"Is this your home, little guy?" Sally asked, gesturing to the trees. She could hear the tell-tale sound of barking squirrels, males looking for mates to be precise. These sounds meant very little to Sally, who preferred dinner and dancing. The squirrel on her shoulder began to whip his tail, and began to grumble, possibly sensing that there were females in the area. "Why don't you get off here?"

She stepped close to one of the squat and fat trees. The rodent on her shoulder gauged the distance, made a few hesitant moves, and then launched itself from her shoulder to the tree branch, catching it with ease and hanging there, barking a response to the other males in the area and throwing his hat into the ring.

"What happened? You didn't get his number?" Kanow asked.

"Nah, I'm not his type. Little guy probably has more luck with one of the ladies around here." Sally grinned, leaving the animal in its new home amid the trees. "Funny how far he wanted to tag along."

The trail came to an end at the edge of the lake where the singular path became a ring that Sally guessed formed a perimeter around the lake, which made this massive indeed. Wedge shaped platforms stretched out over the lake edge, forming what looked like observation areas for the Forerunners who lived here to simply go out and enjoy the scenery. Far off in the distance, a waterfall thundered into the lake, the roar of which was audible even at this distance.

The positioning of the whole thing brought to mind a castle and a moat. Sally was immediately reminded of home. Though Castle Acorn did not have a moat, it was positioned on a raised piece of land; a tall hill that allowed the battlements to have open sightlines for several miles. Sometime in the ancient past, the area had been leveled. It had served them well during the Siege of Castle Acorn during the Great War. Some would argue that it was there the war ended.

This structure was many more times magnificent than the castle she called home - glistening panels made of glass that looked wrought from pure starlight, twisting and fascinating geometry that danced in sections touched by the sun, and an infinite complexity within the engravings that she now were apparent even from afar. It appeared like a fantastical mountain raised in the middle of a dense forest, so startlingly different from the colored grass that surrounded it for miles and miles.

The only thing that was missing, Sally mused, was a drawbridge. That was, until she came across a large ramp, easily the size of a three lane highway. Metal gave way to something that could only be described as glass, inscribed with ancient characters of this ancient unknown language.

"Can you run a translation, NICOLE?"

"Yes!" the AI said. "Yes I can! Sally, this is written in Eigon! This is the language of the Lifeworkers... well, one of them anyway. This line of text covers the better part of a kilometer, but I'll do my best, and I'll try to contextualize it. The line reads to the best of my knowledge, 'We are the voice that calls out in the night; we are the light that keeps hope bright. We are the hands that work without tire; it is our passion for all life that burns like a fire.'"

"Cute." Kanow said. "Like a mission statement."

"That's almost exactly what I think it is, Captain." NICOLE chimed in. "That way those who worked here could see exactly what was expected of them. I'm also seeing other lines of text. These are also written in Eigon. These are all names. Names of Lifeworkers who were here. The deferential tone says that they were all of high stature. Oh this is interesting..."

"What?" Karr asked.

"Forerunners are a highly stratified society that maintained very rigid rules among their castes down to their gene-tailoring themselves to their job."

"Oh like Krypton then. Umm...Superman? Does any of that ring a bell?" Captain Karr replied

"Yes, Captain, it's a little like Krypton but rather than debate fictional universes let's try to stay focused on the situation at hand. The names in the registers an follow different conventions. Some of them are unmistakably Lifeworker."

"What do you mean?" the J&L Agent asked.

"While names like this one right here... ah, 'Urges-Saplings-to-Full-Radiance', come on, that's an environmentalist name if ever there was one."

"So that's... a Lifeworker?"

"Yes." the AI concluded. "Names that have emphasis on nature, organic processes, or even inorganic processes that are... anthropomorphized in some way. Here's another one: 'Warden-of-Life-Bringing-Comets'."

"Bet that guy was beat up in school. Who names their kid 'Warden'?" Cawl asked.

"But some of these... some of these are very different indeed. Sal, what do you make of this one: Master-of-a-Thousand-Marshaled-Strikes."

"Violent." Sally said. "Energetic. Very masculine sounding. That means Warrior-Servant."

"Bingo."

"So they did have a security complement." Kanow said, catching up to Sally as they walked further and further.

Around them, the sidewalls rose higher and higher. The view of the water came from gigantic transparent trapezoidal panels that rose with the angle of the structural siding until it was several hundred feet tall. It was staggering to see that something as simple as a bridge could be so mesmerizing. At any moment, Sally wondered if the bridge would just vanish and they'd plummet what looked like a hundred feet or so into the water below.

Her fears proved unfounded however as her boots touched terra firma on the central island. The grass here was as lush as the mainland, though was more vibrant, almost yellow. This must have meant that this was extremely fertile land. Trees and shrubs were likewise noticeably fuller and seemed to be more endowed with fruit, pines, and flowers. Something that appeared to be a meditation garden was off and to the left of where they were. Sally's compass pegged this as Southwest, probably using Kepler-20 as a reference point. Rows of waterfalls trickling into tiers below them made it seem so peaceful. Perhaps there was a way down on the inside.

The door before them was massive, almost twenty feet tall, lending credence to the theory that sometime in its distant past the station once held a complement of towering Warrior-Servants. The expedition marveled at the sight of such incredible environs so carefully manicured to appeal to the tastes of the Lifeworkers, but was practical enough at times to satisfy the militaristic image the warriors preferred to project. The frame of the gigantic portal was elegant and curved in places, though the door itself was harsh and angular, seeking to incorporate the practical nature of the military caste.

In a way, the Forerunners were a lot like Mobians, though even this was stretching such a reasoning. There were different types of people all working together in a society marching towards a greater good. Though she had to remind herself that given what she had heard of their physical forms, they weren't too far a shot from Humanity either. She had always wondered if that was simply convergent evolution, or outside meddling.

Standing in front of the door, was a pile of familiar-looking boxes with numbers and Latin lettering on them. Sally sprinted forward, looking among them. So they had headed in this direction. Why wouldn't they? There was simply something that commanded respect and admiration about this place. As she looked about, she heard in the distance animals calling out, including that strange layered call again. She was disappointed that they hadn't seen what had caused it when they had come this way.

"Obviously nobody here." Taylor said.

Sally nodded towards Roberts. "Go check out the set on the other side, near those lights. Vicci, go with him."

The team split in two and went over the equipment and supplies. They were all in perfect order and there seemed practically pristine. Packs were still sealed, cans were unopened but stranger still was not a single handgun among them. Where the hell had they gotten off to?

"Negative on backpacks or rucks." Kanow reported.

"Found something!" Karr called out, coming forward with another data pad; ragged and scratched. It had clearly seen better days, but was otherwise be in perfect working order. Karr quickly identified it as belonging to a scientist named Donner, who was a geologist working with the site research staff.

"Guy's a real ball-breaker. Bastard's got a pole shoved so far up his ass he's like rotisserie chicken." he said.

"Charming." NICOLE muttered.

"So they don't have squirrels where you're from, but they have chicken?" Roberts cut in.

"If he's as bad as Kostinger was... he'll have everything right where it's supposed to be..." the security agent said. "Ah, got it." he smirked before turning the screen sideways to display the video screen which unlike the video made by Brynjolfsson, was cracked. "Yeah, that's him."

The video began to play:

" _There's nothing like it. There's nothing like it in the world!" Donner said, his dark eyes wide open with anticipation. "It's probably the most complex arrangement of sound I've heard. What's making that noise? What's making such... music? Alto, then allegro! Smooth, and stacked on top of one another!" the man raised his hand in increments. "Like... layers of rock. One on top of the other. You see something more wonderful underneath..."_

Karr's sly and self-satisfied grin began to fade.

"Dude they're just rocks." Taylor said.

"Shut up!" Kanow hissed.

" _Listen! They're starting again!" Donner looked towards the giant door. "The concert is beginning again! Kostinger! Kos! Listen! Listen to it_!"

The Mobians' pinnae swiveled to the source of the music. Hearing it in its entirety was a hauntingly beautiful experience. They all felt enraptured as if cushioned by a great warmth.

"Wow." Kanow breathed, almost too low to be heard.

" _Inside_." Donner said. " _That's where the Doctor went. That's where they all went. That's where we know we have to go. We have_ -."

The screen fizzled, cracked, and soon white noise erupted, snapping everyone back into reality. Wordlessly, they turned around to regard the door, still standing there, impassive.

Sally reached up and touched her COM set.

"UNSC AI Aida, this is rescue element." she intoned. "AI Aida, do you read me?"

Silence. The trickling of water and the singing of birds Before anyone could speak, could dissuade her from further conversation, the radio crackled to life. Static filtered through everyone's headsets, but nestled between those bursts of white noise were what Sally could swear were words.

"Aida! AI Aida, say again! This is AI NICOLE! Registration code NCL-3235-1! Please respond!"

Crackling of static. More, until it seemed to filter out, as if the voice on the other side had beaten the interference.

"Where are you?!" it asked, shrill, almost scared. NICOLE noted that the voice did not identify itself.

"Just outside." Sally's AI responded. "There's a large door in the way. Can you open it?"

" _I don't... power to open it myself. I... your_..."

"Aida, just tell us what to do." Sally said.

" _I can raise a control panel_!" Aida responded quickly, as if to beat the white noise that followed. " _Security systems have eng... need a second operator_!"

Close to the door, a holopanel began to assemble itself. A frame slid up from the floor, and with a flash of cyan light, the panel itself, crafted from hard light. Sally jogged to it and desperately looked for a way to connect with it.

"Find a way to jack in! Slip entirely into the system if you have to!"

"I may have to!" she cried, desperately searching for a compatible port or anything that was throwing out an IR signature. "I found something! I'm going to keep a portion of my runtime active on the handheld! Otherwise I'm going to be inside this facility's network!"

"Guys...?" Roberts said.

"What!?" Sally exclaimed, whipping around. The instant she did, her mouth dropped. Nearly a hundred Sentinels had swarmed behind them, escalating into columns and rows. Red lights created what looked like a fence of the Forerunner constructs. She heard the chattering of hundreds of claws and the combined overlaying whine of their main drives. They were watching them, waiting for them to make a move.

"NICOLE, hurry up!" Sally squeaked.

" _Aida, I'm in the network! I need you to confirm you're ready to open the doors! I need to do this fast_!"

" _C-C-Confirmed_!" Aida cried out, her voice breaking off at the end.

"Open the goddamned doors!" Karr burst out.

Thumps, and clicks boomed across the bridge. The massive door began to split itself apart and pull away. A burst of air escaped the hallway beyond, throwing the Sentinels back and knocking the Marines off balance. Darkness lay beyond, but their way was clear.

"Move!" Sally cried.

"Everyone else get behind me!" Kanow roared. "Two man columns form up and reverse! Weapons up!"

Sally ran in first, taking cover near one of the supports of the great gate. "NICOLE!" she screamed.

" _Almost got it... Just looking for the settings_..."

Three of the Sentinels began to approach, blaring their warning and projecting the glyph once more, only that klaxon had increased in pitch and desperation. Seeing them move back, the glyph had changed to another one altogether. The klaxon becoming a scream. The Sentinels locked up their limbs, extended glistening metal spines in what was clearly a show of aggression, and advanced.

"Open fire!" Kanow ordered.

For the first time in its operational history, the rolling hills of the station heard the drum-like thump of automatic discharge. The two columns of marines supported each other via fields of overlapping fire. bullets slammed off of the Sentinels' body structure, ricocheting into the bridge supports and into the air.

Karr was less disciplined than the Marines, and unloaded his Krinkov onto the wall of Forerunner drones,

They all continued to move back at a quick pace, though the Sentinels were not deterred. Blue flame erupted from a few of them and their numbers fell to the ground, sputtering and crashing as they overloaded on impact. The spell was broken, and now lances of crimson fire extended across the space, splashing across Kanow's armor.

"Captain!" Vicci cried out.

The Helljumper's shields activated, flaring bright yellow as they absorbed the energy discharge. "I'm fine! Go! Move! Keep shooting! Reload if you have to!

Magazines dropped from their guns, clattering to the metal ground as they crossed the threshold, making for more viable cover. Some of the Sentinels switched targets, looking towards the unshielded Marines.

Sally leaned over her cover and sighted her weapon, flipping to single-shots to conserve munitions. Muffled pops rang out and she felt the familiar thump of the stock against her shoulder as each high-powered round rang out.

The simplistic attack patterns of the drones allowed Sally to anticipate their movements with ease. As the drones floated within effective firing ranges Sally and the rest of the marines unloaded on the exposed portions of their bodies to her aim. Quick pulls of the trigger sent three-oh-eight caliber shots onto their marks. Under the withering barrage of accurate fire, the lead sentinels were torn to shreds. Their thrusters letting loose a soft whine before dropping from the sky like birds downed by a hunter's sling.

Sally counted a half-dozen downed before her magazine ran dry. With a smooth practiced motions, she ejected the mag and slapped a new one in, depressing the bolt catch with her thumb to send the weapon into battery. She was about to shoot again before she saw the eyes of the Sentinels warming from red to orange. She cursed and ducked behind the door frame, just as the lances met with the Forerunner metal.

Kanow's shield glowed brighter and brighter with each landed hit. A shrill alarm sounded in his headset as the barrier was brought to its breaking point. The ODST couldn't protect the men behind him for much longer.

"Go!" he shouted. "Find cover!"

The Helljumper opened up on the Sentinels with a fresh magazine from one of his pouches. He scored two more kills before the barrage of energy on his suit was too much. The shield broke with a flash of light and energy, dissipating into a flurry of sparks as the generator attempted a recharge. A deep staccato alarm sounded in his helmet.

Kanow, knowing he was in extreme danger, ran as fast as he could. He turned his back on the Sentinels, a bad move. When he felt the heat slowly build up on his back, he knew that he was dead. Still he moved as the beams continued to slowly bake him. It would only be a matter of seconds before it would burn though the ceramics and protective layers meant to keep this sort of heat out. Still, it was no good. A third alarm began to sound, screaming that his suit was dangerously close to being breached. His breath came hard and fogged his helmet. He realized that he wasn't prepared to die. This was not supposed to happen.

A sound resembling both a tear and a pop filled their ears. Kanow closed his eyes, not sure what to expect, only to open them after a few moments. He turned to see that the door that they had just come through was covered with a luminescent shield, flowing almost like a sheet of liquid light over the threshold. The Sentinels, stuck on the opposite side, gave the shield a few useless bursts of their beams, then flew away, losing interest.

"Shane!" Sally said, getting to her feet and jogging over. "Are you alright?"

"I don't think so." the ODST gasped. His eyes swept over his smoking armour and shifted slightly before letting loose a pained grunt. He rolled his shoulders and gritted his teeth. He tore his helmet off to get some air. Sally saw his forehead was drenched with sweat.

Her ears ducked back in her helmet, clearly concerned. "What happened?"

" _To the Sentinels or the shield_?" NICOLE asked.

"The shield first." Kanow said, finding a wall ascent to sit down on, gently breathing. Vicci came running over upon seeing his condition. "What happened with that?" he asked.

"When Sally inserted me into the system, I was able to find the controls to seal off this area. I could have closed the doors, but we didn't have time. So I used the emergency measures when life support fails to seal off the area with hard light. You're welcome by the way."

"Now what about the Sentinels?" Cawl asked as he pried off his helmet to rub his scalp. "We pissed them off?"

" _We_ _obviously entered a restricted area. They fired on us as part of their security protocols_."

"Shoot first, ask questions later." The Canid sergeant said in a low voice.

" _Sentinels don't apprehend, Sergeant Cawl. That would have been the job of the Warrior-Servants_."

"And they're not here..." Sally said. "So we skip the trial and go straight to the execution.

She brought her weapon back up and checked her ammunition.

"Half a mag..." Sally cursed as she reinserted the magazine into the well. Her ears peaked and her eyes opened. She checked the floor. The area around them was scattered with shells from their rifles. She looked around to make certain that she was right about this. The only sign of battle was from their own weapons.

"What's wrong?" Kanow call out from where he sat. Vicci had removed some of his armor and was treating the area where he was hit with a nutrient-rich salve. "What are you looking for?"

"Captain, the scientists weren't killed by the Sentinels. Every shell here is from one of our rifles." she announced. "They made it deeper into the facility."

"Do you know that or is that a guess?" the ODST asked.

"I'd like to see you provide another explanation. There's no sign they were attacked at this gate."

He had none, but pressed his lips together, letting the Corpsman continue the administration of medicine.

"OK, this is going to take..." Vicci glanced at the can, "...maybe fifteen minutes to kick in. You're going to feel some numbness for the next twelve hours in the affected area. I can't do much more for you until we get some serious medical attention."

"Aren't you a doctor?" Karr asked.

"I'm a corpsman, Mister Karr, not a doctor." Vicci corrected. "I have enough medical training to handle the typical cuts, scrapes and puncture; but nothing more. So, I can give Captain Kanow here a little spit-shining, a bandage, a slap for good luck, and a bit of hope for the best."

"Don't do that last one." Kanow groaned.

"The hope?"

Sally looked down the Forerunner-built hallway. It was dark; darker than it should have been. She flipped on her flashlight and shone it down the hall. It seemed no different from any other she had encountered. Yet, the former Freedom Fighter couldn't helped but get a bad vibe about the entire affair; a certain sixth sense that this was something far more than a housing complex. She sniffed the air. Yes, was a mysterious twinge in the air that made her pause. She scented again, but still couldn't make it out.

"Roberts, Cawl, Taylor; you guys smell anything?"

"Something." Roberts said. "Don't know what.

"Captain, stay here." she told the ODST.

"To hell with that, I'm going ahead." the man said, readjusting his armor. "Little burn isn't going to slow me down."

"Vicci?" the princess asked.

"I have no power over him." The corpsman replied.

Sally huffed but quickly "Alright. Chevron formation. Everybody on me. NICOLE, can you give us any advice on what we're going to find?"

Silence. This place was even quieter than the administration area. Here there wasn't even an echo to give the impression of size. All of their noises simply vanished into the distance.

"Just keep going forward." NICOLE said, voice a bit lower than usual. "You need to see it."

"See what?" Taylor asked.

"Door ahead of you. about fifty meters."

A NAVPOINT fell on the doorway, illuminated by Sally's flashlight beam. Their boots made patters immediately audible to them, but there was no other reverberation in the space. Not even the gently levitating accents on the side of the angled walls made any noise. They simply just hung in place, as if they were a solid piece of architecture. What could only be described as emergency lighting existed in strips that lined the hallway at foot-level, casting a slight blue hue on the floor, throwing some of the deeper carvings into relief. Above it all, positioned directly above the doorway, now only meters away, was the Eld once more - the symbol of the Mantle; the Forerunner's right to rule the galaxy.

Sally looked at this symbol with more contempt than on Delta Halo four years ago. Once, she believed it to be a symbol of wonder and mystery. Now like the it was just another symbol of the imperial peace of the Forerunners: an excuse to exercise a species' will on another. She felt great pity for the race of Humanity. So much had been taken from them, and it wasn't until now, standing in front of this massive monument to a the Forerunner's sins that she realized how much she pained for the loss of so much progress. She loved Humanity more than many Mobians did, and felt more pain than the others around her in their ignorance of just what this mark meant.

"Stack up." Sally ordered.

The team split into two columns on opposite sides of the door. Karr moved as swiftly as the others. Sally nodded as he was the point man on the other side. His Army training was coming back to him now. That was good.

"Clear door on my mark. I go in first. Alternate entry patterns."

Everyone nodded; standard search and enter protocols.

She reached in, tapped the door controls. The lights on the surface glowed green, chirped twice, and slid apart. Silently, Sally leapt forward, rifle up and filed through before the halves of the portal had fully extended. She was ready to scan her portion of the vista, but the second she brought her weapon up, her strength was sapped from her. The arms dropped, and was again struck dumb, but this time not in wonder, but in confusion, and now, a deep sense of unease.

"Oh my..." she whispered, mouth beginning to tremble.

The nearly half-mile wide room was nearly hollow. The chasm in front of her extended to the roof of the pyramid. In the middle of the gigantic space, a pillar made of complex machinery slowly turned, shooting a blue beam into a receiver at the top of it all.

She glanced down over the edge of the balcony they had emerged on, and saw to her discomfort that the space extended downwards. For what appeared to be miles upon miles; so far that the walls around them converged to a small square down below. On ever free surface around them were tanks. Small tanks and large tanks were nestled into the walls, filled with bright green and blue fluids. Even from here, Sally could make out twisted forms within the tanks. They could have been animals, though some were clearly humanoid.

A massive robotic arm emerged from a track below their position. It came up, performed a series of movements, and plucked a tank from the walls. Within was a form that she recognized. On closer inspection, she realized that the creature was a Sangheili. Unmoving and desiccated even within this pod of gel over a hundred millennia.

"This is a lab!" she said, the horror and disgust clearly audible in her voice. "They experimented on people here! This... this... place is a menagerie! A zoo!"

"Psychos!" Taylor said, a sneer forming on his face. "One minute everything's bright and sunny and the next they're cutting people open? What sons of bitches ran this place?"

Sally ground her teeth. She knew exactly who was responsible for this Mengele-esque horror show: The Librarian. This had her grubby mitts all over it. Even if NICOLE was right and the fairy queen never set foot on this station, this violation was all her doing. Her revulsion grew when she came to the realization that the corpses were preserved in some form of embalming fluid and she was very likely surrounded by ten to the hundreds of thousands of corpses. She felt wave upon wave of nausea threatening to overcome her, and it took every ounce of will to keep herself in check.

"Let's get out of here." Karr said.

Sally was half-tempted to agree, but said, "No, we're not going anywhere until we find Rosa and the others."

"I think Karr's right." Roberts said.

"That's a nice sentiment but the way back is shut." Sally exclaimed.

" _Sal, there may be a way within this building_." NICOLE offered.

"What exactly?"

" _Maybe a manual override. A way that the terminus can be manipulated from the center of the installation; in case of an emergency_."

"And what makes you think that?"

" _I... don't know_." Sally's mouth hung open. NICOLE always had an answer for everything.

"Look just trust me. I don't know why, but I think there's something here that can help us."

"Did Aida tell you?" Sally asked.

" _What_?" The AI asked, as if the question was a complete non-sequitur.

"Did Aida tell you that that would work?"

" _Aida's not in here_." NICOLE said.

Sally's mind reeled. "You're all alone in the system?"

" _It's... lonely. There's nothing here except for the music_."

"Music...?" Roberts asked in a very small voice.

The balcony lurched abruptly then in short spurts. Before anyone could make a move, they began to descend. Cries of surprise and fright sounded among the group as they tried to figure out what was going on. Kanow's shield reactivated and he tried to get everyone under control. Sally however stood at the edge of the balcony as it continued to travel lower and lower into the darkness around them. The light from above struggled to reach the lift as its journey took them into the bowels of the facility. More tanks passed them and joined the mass of green and blue lights above them.

"Hon, what do you hear?" Sally asked.

" _Music_." the AI said. " _Music that... something's in there. Something I just can't wrap my metaphorical head around. There's something in the fractals of the song. Something hidden inside! The deeper I go into the vectors there's just another equation, another argument, another string, another multiple. The math... it's just piling up_."

Sally's voice was low and full of dread. "What does the music say?"

" _I don't know_." NICOLE said, her voice sounding distorted, " _But I know that it sounds 'right_.'"

They picked up speed, moving faster and faster into the depths. Sally stood there, unsure of what to make of all this. She barely even noticed the passing tanks filled with twisted bodies of various test subjects. The freak-show of cadavers had a noted effect on the others, who cursed in streams and tried to find some cover on this platform, which offered very little in that department.

All about them was what seemed to be choir music, almost like a whale song. They struggled to locate the source, but to their fright, it appeared to originate from everywhere. It was as if the tanks themselves were the sources. Hundreds of thousands of amplifications drove the music into an arrangement that had no equal, yet the forms within these chambers were still and unmoving. They could produce no utterance, let alone something of this magnitude. The song came louder, yet smoother, permeating the very essence of those on the elevator. They staggered, yet held their own.

"What's this?" Kanow gasped

"We have to keep going!" Taylor cried out. "We're almost there!"

Sally whipped around and was about to respond until she caught the glitters of machines descending from above.

"Sentinels are back!" Vicci said, as if she was straining.

"Fire!" Sally commanded.

Sally and three other combatants formed a rear-guard and tagged the lead machines. The sentinels blared their warning - an ugly repetition of a single note that paled in comparison against the ethereal melody. Shell casings collected on the surface and one-by-one the Sentinels went down like miniature meteors into the depths, impacting the ground with a clang.

Then they were gone. The elevator had entered a sort of shaft that closed behind them. Several doors closed over the as they passed by, almost as if they were going into an airlock. The platform slowed to a halt, and with a final groan went stock-still.

The men and women of the rescue team could only breathe deeply, sweat matting their faces and staining their uniforms. Roberts dropped to the ground and sat there, weapon clacking to the alien metal beneath him. Sally went over and clapped him on the shoulder. "You did good, STAR." she said. "Way to keep your head."

Roberts, out of breath and barely able to speak, nodded in appreciation. "I... thought they were going to get us that time."

The princess changed her view to Karr, who likewise barely spoke, but took the time to knock the magazine out of his Krinkov and fasten a new one in. The sound of a charging handle being pulled and the dull thud of an unfired round hitting the ground made a few turn around.

Karr, realizing he was being watched, looked up. "What?" he asked.

Sally walked over and picked up the magazine with her left hand, realizing it was still heavy.

"Hang onto this, Captain."

"What did I do wrong?" the man asked, worry creeping into his voice.

"Nothing; you did good." Sally reassured. "But if those Sentinels get down here, we're going to need every single round we can get our hands on. That includes," she placed the mag in the pit of her right arm, reached down again, and picked up the unfired bullet, "This one."

Sally slotted the rifle cartridge back into the feed lips of the mag and handed it back to Karr, who accepted it.

"Retain ammunition you don't spend." Sally advised. "You were in the army; you've been taught this."

"Yeah." Karr nodded. "Yeah I was."

"I need you now, Captain." Sally said, making sure the security agent understood her serious tone. "Everyone fired on all cylinders." she added, looking around to those around her.

"Gonna take more than..." Cawl said, looking up the shaft, where the closed doors blocked the view to the massive drop they had come down. He pointed upwards, "...those things to stop me."

The area that the lift had stopped in was dark. It was darker than the hallway leading to the elevator. The silence that reached the Marines was deeper and more expansive if it was at all possible. Even their footsteps seemed to have been swallowed by the oppressive quiet of the whole place. Sally had read about places that were so quiet, a person could hear the processes of their own bodies, being driven half-mad by their own beating heart that thundered in their own ears. She could feel the pulse of blood in her neck, and every time she swallowed, it sounded more like a wet crack.

"Is nobody, you know, going to mention what just happened?!" Roberts suddenly burst out. "Nobody's going to say anything?!"

"Sentinels, I bet." Kanow said, not losing a beat. "Some sort of sonic weapon. Damn near worked too."

Roberts threw his free arm around in exasperation. "Captain, if those were Sentinels, they would have done that-"

"Shh!" Sally hissed sharply, hand up in a tight ball.

The chatter died away, quickly melting into that depressing quiet beyond mere silence. But it wasn't the void it was a moment ago. Up ahead, there was a noise. Slight and heaving. Sally's ears twisted around in her helmet, trying to make it out. After a moment, it became clear what it was. Sobbing.

Sally gasped and quickly made her way forward.

Kanow leapt forward and grabbed her by the loop of her backpack.

"Sergeant Major! Stop!"

Sally, shocked by the sudden backwards force, twisted around to see Kanow's face visible through his visor. "Let go of me, Captain!"

"We move as a unit!"

"That could be Rosa!"

"Doctor Lindenberg is the objective! We do not move on impulse!"

"That's a Human being, not a target!" Sally said, struggling to shake herself free. The crying grew louder, as if the voice had sensed their presence. The wails took on a tone of recognition. Its rescuers were close.

" _Sally, stay together._ " NICOLE said simply, not giving any further insight.

The princess stopped struggling, and Kanow released her. "I'll take point." The ODST said.

"I'm squad leader." Sally pointed out.

"And I have energy shields." Kanow responded. "You want to take those odds in case those drones make it down here?" he not so subtly pointed to the warped plates on his armor.

Sally huffed and took position behind the ranking officer.

It didn't take long. The corridor beyond was cramped, only allowing a single-file formation, despite being tall enough to accommodate the Forerunners that once stalked these hallways. The wails were only punctuated by breaths in between. The cries seemed almost too smooth. There were no coughs, no swallows, or variance in the tempo, but it was so clearly a person on the other side.

Kanow looked at the men behind him and said quietly, "We breach quickly."

"We don't know what's on the other side." Sally pointed out.

"We have no choice." The ODST growled. "No light either. We're not outfitted for room clearing. Just move fast."

"Yeah." Sally nodded. "Got it?" she added, looking at those behind her, only lit by indirect glow of the flashlights. Eyes forward, she reached up and tapped Kanow's left shoulder.

"Go!" The Helljumper shouted, moving forward at a lightning pace. The door split apart at the middle, revealing another pitch black room. Beyond, the glow of floor lights said it was large and cavernous. The cries were crystal clear, and were given an echo. The team moved in, quickly spreading around the walls, weapons raised.

Just as she was about to locate the source of the sound, a horrible stench enveloped her, not apparent on entering. It was vile and rank, as if it were sitting there for millennia. She retched and gagged; her stomach threatened to upend as the miasma assaulted her every sense. The air was foul with the sweetness of rotting meat, but the familiar scent of cordite as well as something completely different that defied explanation. The rancid air she breathed in between her fits of retching was hot and wet, almost like a liquid.

She nearly lost her footing and placed her arm out for support to break her fall. Her open palm made contact with a surface to save her, but the surface began to give way under her weight. A horrible squelching noise like a boot breaking the surface of muddy ground crept up her fingers. What scared her the most was how warm it was. She squeaked and pulled back, a sucking noise following her withdrawal, as if the substance didn't want to let go. She aimed her flashlight at the wall and saw that it was not a support pillar at all, but a mass of _something_ that slid over itself as if it were alive. Sally's mind attempted to rationalize what she was looking at, but she could only draw breath in horrified shock, and her fright deepened when she realized that the crying had stopped, and to replace it, cursing from the rest of her team as they made their own discoveries. She could hear Cawl's voice breaking as he spoke.

"What did they do here?!" the wolf cried, his voice devolving to that of a frightened child. "What... what the hell did they _do_ here?!"

Sally heard Vicci vomit somewhere in the dark, obviously overcome by the nauseous air and... whatever this carnival of horror was. Every small step Sally took was blanketed in this substance, this rug of viscera that stretched out and about the room, stretching as far as her flashlight could make out.

"Someone find out who was making that noise!" Kanow called, shouting to mask the fear present in his voice. The ODST's jet black armor was invisible in the darkness, even from indirect lighting.

But the voice would not come back.

"UNSC!" Sally called out. "Doctors! Please respond!"

She was about to call again, but her flashlight found something tucked into the corner of the room; a twisted and gnarled mass that was motionless on the floor, blood spreading around it looking almost like a crimson snow angel. Sally approached it very slowly. Her vitals showed her heart rate had doubled, and her fur had begun to mat with sweat. Her knees were weak, and her breath was explosive, all the while the void around her threatened to crush her with its sheer oppressiveness and breadth.

The smell was even worse, and with a supreme effort fought her gag reflex, winning only barely.

Somewhere in the back, she could hear someone slip and fall, thumping on the floor and shrieking both in disgust and anxiety.

"Who's that?!" Kanow asked. "Are you OK?"

"It's me, goddammit!" Karr said miserably. "Aw Jesus Christ I fell in it! I fell in it, man! I... oh man, oh man, there's shells here."

Sally didn't turn to look. She was enticed by this thing in the corner on almost a subconscious level. Her ears twitched, as if picking up a signal she couldn't quite fight.

"Are you sure?" Cawl said coming over to where Karr must have been. "Oh yeah. Look at these. They're everywhere."

"Are those from our missing handguns?"

"Twelve-sevens." Taylor reported. "There must be hundreds of them!"

Sally came even closer, her heart-rate peaking as she came up to the mass on the ground. Her weapon jittering about. The thing on the ground was in the rough shape of a humanoid creature, but it was wrong. Its body was twisted, covered in growths, and gaping wounds revealed bones and organs beneath, bloated and seeping fluid onto the ground. She looked at one hand and saw that it was slender and fair amid this mess. On its finger as was a ring. Her mouth went slack and blood drained from her face. Her eyes went wide at once.

"NICOLE, what is this?" she demanded, her voice sounding miles away. With her free hand, she reached down to grab the thing's shoulder.

"Got a body!" Cawl reported, running off somewhere that Sally couldn't see. "Looks... oh God!" He trailed off, his voice devolving into coughs and hacking of disgust and revulsion.

"NICOLE?" Sally asked again, her fingers closing around the shoulder, bony looking protrusions greeting her gloves.

" _You already know what it is_." She heard the AI respond. " _It's what brought you here_."

With a sudden jerk, she pulled the thing over, letting it face towards the dark roof. She stared, mouth trying to form words. Rosa. It was Rosa.

Lindenberg's face had ballooned, and was a sick shade of purple in green. One of the eyes was missing, and her skull had deformed in places. Her nose was broken, mouth a wide gap with jagged teeth lining it, but among it all were her glasses more or less intact. The remaining eye was a jaundiced yellow with a pupil wide and unresponsive.

Sally's eyes wandered down the dead woman's body, her coat a collection of ruined threads barely hanging over her frame. Her chest was split down the middle with her ribcage open to the air. Nestled in the remains of the heart and lungs was a patch of fuzzy material that projected long bristled tendrils into the air that began to twitch very slightly.

Sally choked on a scream, and tears powered by a fear greater than she had ever known in her life dropped like rain.

" _Run._ "

But her body wouldn't obey. She was rooted to the spot and couldn't even so much as blink. She couldn't force any part of her body to move.

The corpse sat up and turned its head, looking with its dead eye at Sally, and began to cry.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: OK guys, this one's going to be a hard reader discretion now. If you're going to continue, I'm giving you a warning from this point on. Things are going to get real.**

* * *

Chapter 8:  
March 16, 3240, 0700 hours  
Unknown Lab, Forerunner Station  
Kepler-20 System

Staff Sergeant Logan Cawl was frozen in primal fear as the mass of flesh that had once lay in front of him began to rise. He tried to reason away what he was seeing as the thing near silently stood up, the face illuminated by the shaking beam of his flashlight. It hung limply at the side, eyes wide and blank, though its mouth began to form shapes that resembled words Cawl thought he knew.

He backed away, yet the thing took a shaking, shambling step towards him, the face of the man imprisoned within this mound of flesh, bone, and cancerous tumor wanting to follow him. It raised its hands as if to shield its face from the light. Cawl let out a startled cry as he gazed upon the alien digits. The thing's fingers tore from the flesh, the bones becoming long and gnarled, each ending in a finely serrated edge that looked like it was meant to part flesh and muscle in a single swipe.

" _Run_." he heard.

"Stay back!" Cawl shouted, though to no effect. He looked around to see his squadmates, but saw with a horrified realization that he had become separated from his group. He had placed himself unknowingly into one of the corners of the room shrouded in darkness so deep that even his VISR couldn't help him distinguish the floor from the walls. He was in a void.

He heard screams. Screams of such volume that he lost his nerve and joined them. The thing that had once been a man gasped and rattled, the head sputtering and looking enraged. Its arms twitched, and it finally unleashed a yell from torn lungs, powered by something that Cawl couldn't begin to understand. It took one step and then another, hand raised and ready to slash.

"Back off!" Cawl cried, finally raising the gun.

It didn't stop, and the Mobian unleashed ten semi-automatic shots. The bullets lanced through the thing's chest and face. The metal jacketed rounds tore at the flesh and bone, ripping the skull apart. The thing's gaze was gone along with its head. It seized up and fell backwards, landing with a sick wet crunch.

Cawl leaped over it, yelping in terror as he tried to locate his team. Gunfire erupted in the void, and for brief seconds, the Sergeant could see his other squadmates. The sound of battle filled the air and echoes of it travelled up towards the unseen ceiling of the room. He saw the ground was covered in the sludge and remains of things that once lived - bodies of alien creatures he couldn't identify were lain atop one another with a thick layer of mucus or something on top of them. His flashlight revealed horror after horror that his mind was unprepared for - bodies lined the walls in frozen contortions of pain. He came too close to one of the walls and felt a sudden jerk around his neck and chest. He was pulled backwards towards the wall by something. He screamed, clawing at what was holding him in place. It was strong, and muscles rippled through it. He looked down and saw that they were hands, but with too many fingers and exposed bone visible beneath the ropy muscles. He panicked and raised his gun to the hand and fired, the bullet chewing through the appendage. It was enough to allow him to wrench himself loose from the thing. He heard a howl of pain and frustration. One of the bodies on the wall was alive still, its lower half missing; intestines fusing with the organic sludge on the wall. Its body cavity was torn apart, and inside of it all, he saw something twitching. He saw this thing, this lump of flesh and bile nestled between the body's lungs. Its tendrils reaching out, looking to touch him as it sensed his presence.

He wanted to go home, but couldn't bring himself to speak his wish. He closed his eyes as tightly as he could, hoping to wake up in his bed. He wanted this all to be a bad dream, but when he opened his eyes, all he could see was the void, with flashes of the others fighting for their lives.

"Fall back!" He heard Kanow scream. "Fall back! Go back the way we came!"

Cawl moved as if he was in a nightmare. His body didn't always obey his wishes and it seemed like he was stuck in place. Twice he tripped over thick tendrils like roots on the ground, crossing the pitch blackness towards the only thing he could see as light. He heard horrible things around him, and couldn't pin down what was happening. His radar was jumping with activity - dozens of white dots were dancing around, unconfirmed contacts that were unseen in the depths of this hidden chamber. He slammed into something and lost his footing. He screamed and instantly pushed off the ground, and flinched when he heard a similar cry. The crack of a weapon went off against his face, and he heard the ripping of air as the bullet sailed past him. He saw for a split second in the muzzle flash the frightened face of Derec Karr, Sunglasses now missing, face distorted in sheer terror.

"Karr! Come on man, let's go!"

But Karr was once again in darkness, and Cawl found himself alone and scared. Karr was not registered officially as a friendly in the IFF system, and as a result, his tiny white dot was concealed in the sea of it's like-colored kin.

" _Fire on all unconfirmed contacts!_ " He heard Kanow scream over the COM. " _Don't think! Just do it!_ " lis

Cawl was about to bring up the fact that Karr was one of those unconfirmed dots, but his thumping heart reminded him there were far more serious things to be worried about. He bolted left, startled at the sound of something horrible that rumbled not five feet from him. He held his gun out with one hand and pulled the trigger, the muzzle flash briefly illuminated another face, but fractured and gnarled as if it had been forced through a machine. Its face was punctured by organic pits like nostrils wherever it was intact. Air was forced out like a scream. Its hand reached out for him, though it could not move from the mound of flesh and matter it was imprisoned within. Then in the instant that brief light vanished, and he saw no more. The rifle bucked back and upwards and it took every ounce of his strength to keep it level. How many had he fired in that burst? Five? Six?

Cawl looked for a way out desperately, and up ahead he saw green lights. Green, he reasoned, meant unlocked for the Forerunners, same as Mobians.

"Come on!" Cawl screamed over his radio. "Guys I found an unlocked door! Come on!"

" _Stay here!_ " He heard a piercing roar from Kanow. " _Keep your ass right here, Staff Sergeant!_ "

"Fuck this!" Cawl said, tears now in his eyes. "Stay here; get killed!"

" _I gave you a goddamn order, Staff Sergeant!_ Logan!"

He saw something out there; a flash of yellow perhaps out there; Kanow's shield taking damage from one of those _things_. That would be the end of them. He had to run. Anywhere was better than this abbatoir; this slaughterhouse! Without looking back again, he charged through the door, gun raised. Cawl sprinted down the hallway. This one was dimly lit, though the stench from the previous room was still here in force. He swooned, caught himself, and then forced ahead. He began to cry, slamming his fist into the wall. Leaving his team to die to... these things. Oh Jesus Christ, those were the scientists. All of them. It didn't matter anymore. The reality of the situation was clear to him. They were all dead, every last one of them. He was dead, his princess was dead, every single man and woman locked down here would die... or end up like these things. Cawl coughed, breaking his moaning for a second or two. He looked back at the doorway. It was still closed, though the lights were green. He thought of Mobius again, and of the sunshine of his coastal town. He thought back to when he was a little boy fishing with his brother. He wanted this memory to make him feel better, but all it did was make him wish he was back in his bed. He closed his eyes again and tried to wake himself up, but when he opened them again, all he saw was the tunnel of unfeeling and cruel steel, and the harsh reality of it all that this station would be his tomb.

He walked forward. What choice did he have? He held the rifle in his hand as if he had handled it for the first time. The barrel wobbled and his finger was gripped on the trigger, a violation of firearms safety that he had no regard for at this moment.

He took a turn and gasped in relief as there was nothing there waiting for him. The hallway looked as if it were getting smaller as he moved along. It was a trick of course, but he could swear that his helmet brushed the top of the passage. It was all getting to him, and the lack of even the slightest echo in the hallway made it worse. The soft bluish light cast by the strips near the floor caused shadows to lance across the angled walls, making his own silhouette a monstrous thing. He looked up at chance and, terrified of his own image, squeezed the trigger by accident.

In the small space, the rifle bark was deafening, even through his ear protection, and his loose grip threw the weapon backwards, taking his posture with it. Three more rounds exited his weapon and hit the wall on an angle. They ricocheted off the surface with a whine, bouncing off another before splintering against the ceiling.

He cursed himself, slapping the side of his helmet as he regained his sense of balance. That was when he heard the door he came through, around two corners and down the hallway, open, as if it were right next to him.

"Shit!" He cried out, sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him. "Oh God help me!" he called out, moving so fast his joints began to ache, and his vision began to cloud. He saw another door and made for it, praying for extra speed even though he could begin to feel his lungs burning. All that mattered was the door - that one simple door that would keep him one step ahead of the hellspawn that was right behind him. Anywhere, _anywhere_ , was better than back there.

The door sensed his approach, and parted. Cawl threw himself through the open portal and landed on the other side face first. He began to laugh near maniacally at the miracle that he was alive, though the laugh turned to a harsh, bitter-edged noise. Guilt gnawed at him over leaving his friends to die. He felt like a coward and he felt like he should have been there. He had been driven by animal instinct; the sheer desperation to get out alive and save his own skin, but then he fell silent. The scent from that last room was back, first as a whiff, but then in an overwhelming wave that it forced him to his feet in a feeling of disgust that he had never before in his entire life experienced. He lifted his eyes, and then froze.

Ahead of him was a large amphitheater-like space that stretched for storied above him. Tables upon tables floated in the air, illuminated by pillars of light that were cast from above, though these must have been sterile white based on the few feet's worth of unspoiled space in front of him, every single square inch of the room, every pillar, every facet, every step, and every other imaginable architectural feature was covered in the organic sludge. Pus-filled cysts and womb-like appendages wobbled and rolled beneath them, as if ready to unleash what lay dormant within.

He saw, like scarecrows, tall, overly muscular, and hideously deformed mobile ones, legs like stumps, and heads lolling, spines long-since liquefied. One saw him, and called out, a long and haunting note joined by others in a crescendo that called to him, called _for_ him.

"No!" Cawl shrieked in existential terror, in terror at the sheer unfairness of it all. "No!"

He turned and made his way to the door, but saw immediately the green lights had turned to a deep and burning crimson, like a pair of eyes signaling the approaching of some great and terrible creature.

"Let me out!" he screamed, hand banging on the door so hard they began to bleed from cuts and scrapes. "Let me out!" he repeated, crying for his life.

Cawl wheeled around and saw them. He raised his rifle and fired into the closest one, the bullets hitting their mark and blasting organic matter out in wide exit wounds. One fell and another was clearly wounded. He reloaded on reflex alone, but they were closing fast. He searched for room to maneuver, but found none. He fired again, killing two more, but he saw in despair that the first one that had gone done rose up, puckered bullet wounds clearly visible on its body.

He gave it everything he had, the rounds from his weapon over penetrating these things' bodies. One of them must have struck the boil-like appendages on the column of flesh and it ruptured like a fluid-filled ball. From things that drove him to the brink of madness, his mind nearly breaking in two. Small slithering things sitting on small tentacles immediately sought him, moving towards him with shocking speed. He fired on them, aiming for them, but his shots went wide; they were simply too small for him to hit with his aim.

Ten feet.

Seven.

An animal sound escaped the Staff Sergeant that no other man would have thought possible come from a living, thinking creature, and they leapt for him.

Logan tripped on the steps, and knew it was over, yet he couldn't force himself to close his eyes.

They landed on him, heavier than they seemed. He screamed and tried to push them off, but found his arm cut nearly to the bone by one of the tentacles. He began to bleed heavily, nearly in shock, but he still fought back, even as the things swung their bristled tendrils, shredding through his armor, and then his uniform.

Cawl fought back even when they cut his skin, his eyes covered in the blood from his numerous cuts. He saw one of them spread the wound wide, and he saw his own ribcage. he felt no pain, and his fragmented mind produced a single question - why wasn't he dead yet?

It forced its way into his body, the squirming mass shaking and bustling as it bored his way into his chest cavity. He could see his own chest heaving as the thing moved among his lungs and heart, both of which moved as he was violated. He let his head hang back as indescribable agony overtook him. The other things just crawled over him, making no move on him. He could feel them on his face, his eyes, his bleeding arms and blood-soaked legs. Oh God in Heaven, why wouldn't he die?

His spine jerked upwards, and then broke with a sharp pop. His muscles bulged and jittered, the mass nearly crushing the bones and rubbing up against them like pieces of glass. He passed out from the pain, but was brought back, his body refusing to let him go for some reason. Death. All he wanted was death.

 _No._

He jerked, alarmed, and saw that his body began to change, morph.

His mouth wouldn't obey his brain. He wanted to die.

 _You are a voice most sweet._

Cawl tried to pull back, to drag his consciousness out, but he found a presence, a dark tendrilled presence in his mind that pushed on him, putting him under pressure.

 _You are new to us_.

Please.

 _Your voice adds to the song; this voice innocent and sweet._

He felt its presence force his way into his mind. violate the deepest recesses of his soul. It was hungry - it was a hunger that confused and frightened him.

 _Do more sing with your voice... Cawl._

No. It knew his name. It knew his name.

 _Cawl._

He rose. It was not his body any longer. His eyes roamed around. His body was gangrenous and slopping in places, yellowing bone poking through flesh.

 _Cawl._

His neck snapped to one side, yet he remained there, in pain and conscious.

 _Cawl. You are a coward._

No!

 _You run like a rabbit from flame, in the forests of your youth._

What did it mean? What had... he tried to think, head lolling loosely. What did it mean? Why couldn't he remember?

 _Your village. Your kind._

Please don't.

He thought of his brother, the only one there in his life when nobody else was. He thought of him on the day they were fishing, but his face began to fade into the darkness.

Don't take him!

Tears welled in his eyes and he tried to hold onto the memory with dear life, surrendering all else as the body shambled forward, his tail now whipping uncontrollably, barbed and segmented. The body reached down and grabbed Cawl's weapon, holding it in one hand as if it knew how to use it. The fingers were long and bony, yet fit inside the gun's guard tightly.

The memory was gone. Cawl wondered why he was upset. What had he lost? What had he lost? _What had he lost_? The sheer knowledge that something, something was gone drove him over the egdge.

What have I lost? What have I lost? What's missing?

 _Cawl_.

Why? Why are you doing this?

 _It is the way of things_.

The presence filled his mind. He was frightened, and saw something worse than death encroach on him. He was out of strength, and his mind was tired. He could not hold on.

What have I lost? What have you taken from me?

But the presence would not reply, forcing himself deeper. Cawl let out a sound like a howl, though it was broken, gargled, and his ruined throat only spat blood.

 _I know much. But I know so little. There are voices yet unheard._

Who are you?

Then it was upon him, his last shred of consciousness at its mercy.

 _I am a timeless chorus, sung when the stars were birthed and when the world grows old._

Logan Cawl gave one last frightened whine, and was gone.

The body moved forward, head flopping about. The gun in its hands held steadily and with inhuman determination. Slowly, along with the others, it moved now with new purpose towards the door. The lights flashed, and then glowed green, opening to the hallway beyond.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
March 16, 3240, 0702 hours  
Unknown Lab, Forerunner Station  
Kepler-20 System

"Don't waste it, just run!" Kanow screamed over the COM, batting away one of the corpses as it battled to rend his armor. He gave it a few swipes of his rifle before, against his own orders, fired a single round dead center into the creature, splattering his faceplate with the jaundice-tinged gore of the former Human. The body seized up, as if a marionette's master jerked at the strings, and it fell over in a loose lump of flesh, sounding like the sloshing of water in a balloon. Kanow instantly backed off, disgusted at the creature.

Sally noticed that someone moved in the darkness, illuminated by muzzle flash and the subtle lighting of the Forerunner strips in the walls. She spotted the whipping tail.

"Cawl!" She cried, shouting loud enough to crack her voice. "Cawl! Stop!"

" _Guys I found an unlocked door!_ _Come on!_ "

"Stay here!" Kanow answered. "Keep your ass right here, Staff Sergeant!"

But he was gone, vanished into the darkness once more.

"I can't raise him!" Sally said, worried now. "Captain!"

"Leave him!" the ODST said coldly.

Someone went flying through the air. The confused and frightened voice trailing off as the object impacted somewhere on the far side of the room. The dot on Sally's radar flashed yellow.

"Who was that?!" She said, climbing up a step she almost tripped over, spotting movement in the light.

"It's me!" Taylor coughed, sounding close to Sally, "It's me!"

" _Status!" Kanow called._

 _"_ Oh Aurora, damn it all! I think, I think my arm's broken!"

Sally's ears canted in her helmet, straining to locate the sound, but among the putrid currents of air in the lab, she could pick out the man's scent, a musky, yet scared blend of his presence. His little motions plus the moans of pain made him easier to locate.

Sally saw him in her flashlight's beam. He was bleeding from the nose, and his dilated eyes suggested a concussion. Though his armor was dented, she noted with dread that his right arm, his gun arm, was bent halfway down his radius. Sally winced as she noted that his uniform sleeve was already soaked with blood. He must have landed on a step or an edge. Taylor however, did not seem to be aware of the extent of his injuries. That would change soon enough.

"Captain! Taylor's down!"

" _Is he alive_?!"

"I'm alive!" He protested. "I'm al-" he put pressure on his broken arm, and let out a scream that was incredibly loud. It rose in pitch as he collapsed, the broken halves of his arm bone not able to support the weight of his body and gear now. He his chest heaved, and with every moment air left his lungs, it was in a single note of agony. His legs bunched, and his back arched. His left hand flying to the ruined bone, but even this caused him to howl even more.

"Corpsman!" Sally screamed, knowing what this bawling would do. She wheeled around and saw another one of them heading for her. Its mouth was open. Its mouth hung open, jaw unhinged and whipping. From its torn throat issued a matching scream of pain and despair, the agony resonating in stereo from two sides. Sally's mind went blank, as two identical sounds assaulted her - a broken man, and something that once was a man. She recognized in its face the remains of youth and what was once a promising young scientist.

"Poor Ollie..." Sally said with momentary clarity before raising her weapon and firing ten shots in a tight grouping directly into Brynjolfsson's chest. The bullets smacked into the bloated flesh that dominated the left side of his body, shredding and spilling ichor all over the floor with a loud splash, the torn sacs of flesh revealing noodle-like muscles and bone. The creature didn't stop moving. Sally backed away, thumbing to full-auto and dumping the rest of the magazine into its center of mass. The thing pitched forward and rolled on the ground, sloshing in its own fluids, stopping only four feet from Sally's boots. It thrashed around, its screeches increasing in volume.

She couldn't take it anymore. She pulled her sidearm, and thumbed off the safety. She aimed at the rapidly thrashing tendrils poking through the middle of the creature's chest, and fired a single round. The screaming cut off abruptly, and the body went limp. Ollie's eyes bulged in their sockets, the glassy eyes going still.

Then, Sally became aware that the screaming hadn't stopped. Taylor was still rolling on the ground, his uniform sleeve nearly black with blood.

Sally realized she needed to save him.

"Corpsman! Taylor's arm's broken!"

" _I can't get there!_ " Vicci said, her voice tearing from strain.

"NICOLE, get me a way out!"

" _There's so much noise..._!" The AI said softly. " _I can't find anything!_ "

"I need you!" Sally begged, slinging her weapon after replacing the magazine. She squatted down, looking to see where it was safest to grab the other chipmunk. She had no time. She hoisted up Taylor's bulk, with what little help she could get from him. His arm fell, and he screamed next to her ear. Sally recoiled to one side, her protection not doing much to protect against the raw emotion of the sound; not the decibel count. With strain and pain, she brought him onto her shoulder, though the weight was immense. Taylor was thin as a stick, and didn't have much mass. She wasn't sure she could bear the weight for long.

She forced herself through the dark, her left arm stabilizing the bawling man, her right holding her gun, supported on the sling. Her eyes stung and she was aware she was crying. She couldn't bear to hear the suffering.

"Please, NICOLE..." she said, her voice warbling.

Her VISR flashed. " _Go forward!_ " the AI said. " _There's an open door up ahead and to your right! Watch your step!_ "

Sally let out a gasp of gratefulness. Her pace quickened, and the weight on her shoulder appeared to become lighter. "Captain! We have a way out! NICOLE! Mark it!"

The NAVPOINT appeared in her HUD.

" _Move!_ " Kanow ordered.

They had to trust each other; trust that they would move to safety. Sally's knees began to buckle. She could not hold Taylor much longer.

She saw not only the bright lights of the doorway, but the yellow spots on her radar. Three dots. Everyone was alright. But no. Not everyone was alright. There was one dot missing from the group. But who was it?

The door opened, revealing a bright hallway beyond. Kanow's visor was illuminated by it. Roberts, she saw, clung to him, barely holding together. Vicci fired at something in the black soup. In the light, the miasma was visible as green-yellow clouds, tossed around by air currents. Where was Karr?

Kanow took position by the door. He spun about face and fired without hesitation, coordinating his fire with Vicci. "Go! Get in! Move it for Christ's sake!"

Bodies filed in, curses mixed with urges to speed up became nearly indistinguishable.

"Go, sweetheart!" Kanow said, shoving Vicci towards the door. As soon as the corpsman made it through, Kanow ceased firing and entered the portal back-first. "Seal it!" He commanded NICOLE.

Metal slammed against metal in the blink of an eye. And at once, the hellish noise stopped. The singing stopped. There was only breathing.

The adrenaline ran out. Sally dropped, and Taylor fell with her, screaming as his broken arm impacted the floor. Immediately, Vicci was alert and running to Taylor's aid, immediately stripping off his dented armor pieces.

"Holy shit, there's a lot of blood." Roberts said, bracing against the wall. "That's a lot of blood." he repeated, wobbling slightly.

"You want to sit down, you sit down." Kanow said to the red panda who took the advice and dropped to the deck, weapon clattering on the ground.

"Sergeant Major." Kanow said.

Sally almost didn't hear the address. She just stared at the far wall, breathing slowly but steadily. She was licking cracked lips and her fingers.

Kanow strode around the man in agony and walked in front of the princess, and crouched to her level. His faceplate depolarized, revealing his face, though it was obscured by pasty yellow-green glaze. "You hear me?" he asked again, his voice insistent.

"Yeah, Shane." Sally nodded. "I do..."

"You get a fix on Karr?"

Sally shook her head, "No, I didn't see him out there. I... I think I saw Cawl run through a door."

"I saw him too." the ODST said. "Think he's still alive?"

She took a breath. "I don't know. Same with Karr."

She felt a deep sense of regret that the J&L agent wasn't with them. She wasn't sure where he had gone off to, but given the state of the scientists, who had also been armed, she had little hope that Karr was still alive. What a sad fate to die alone out there, to these things.

She thought she heard a whisper. Her ear turned, trying to make out where it came from. When she fixated on it, it disappeared. She gripped the rifle a bit tighter. Just then a piercing cry broke her concentration, and she was up, weapon pointed back up the hallway. Roberts and Kanow were restraining Taylor, holding down his arms and legs respectively as the chipmunk thrashed around. Vicci had retrieved a pair of surgical scissors and removed the black section of Taylor's uniform sleeve. Removing it by rolling it up would have caused too much pain. She had finally snipped it off and revealed the terrible wound underneath.

Taylor's arm had been pierced in two spaces by splintered and bloody bits of his humerus. The strands of bone had cut through the skin and had poked against the sleeve. Every movement shifted the razor-like surface and had ground muscle, fat, and tendons. Taylor's arm flopped about, the movements pathetic and without the internal structure of the skeleton to keep it in check.

"What do we do?" Roberts asked, his eyes gleaming with tears; he was unable to stand seeing the man in this much pain.

"I... I have to give him anesthetic."

"You have to knock him out?" Kanow asked. "Now?"

"No!" Vicci said. "It'll just be a localized anesthetic! He'll be conscious, but I'll... I need to replace the bone."

"Replace?" Roberts asked in a small voice.

She didn't elaborate. Instead, she reached back into her pack.

There was a banging at the door that made all of them jump.

"Shit!" Kanow cursed. "Do we have to do this here?"

"He's going to make this difficult if we move him." Vicci pleaded. "Captain, this wound is still bleeding!"

Kanow looked up at the doorway. Another bang on the door raised the tension another notch.

"Roberts, you cover the door."

"What?" the STAR asked.

"You want to hold him in place?" The ODST questioned. "Get the hell on that door!"

"Yes sir." Roberts said, taking position next to the screaming Taylor.

"Listen to me!" Kanow demanded. "You are going to control yourself, Marine! You are going to suck it up and be a man, or I swear to God I will hit you in the face. That's your anesthetic!"

Taylor's blood-soaked face quivered at the threat, but he bit his lip so had he drew fresh blood.

"Captain!" Vicci said, aghast.

"Give him the drugs, Corpsman." he said, leveling a threatening finger at the woman.

Sally said nothing, but realized the severity of the situation. As much as he was being tactless, Kanow was right in the way he was going about doing things. The situation was dire. He needed to step in and take charge. If that meant hurt feelings, then so be it.

Vicci found the plunger of anesthetic - a clear liquid that she explained would numb the local area and would allow her to perform spot surgery. She cleared threads of hair that escaped her helmet and she removed the plastic covering and tapped the tube. "Captain, I need you on his arm!"

"Don't. Move." Kanow threatened, his armored finger less than an inch from Taylor's nose. He released his grip on the Marine's legs, which immediately quivered. To Taylor's credit, the chipmunk was holding well, under the terrible pain.

"I've got them." Sally said, rushing forward to grip around the wounded man's ankles, gently, but firmly holding them down.

"Princess..." Taylor said, his voice quivering. "You saved me."

"It's alright." She said. "I'm here."

The Mobian's lips quivered in response, blood leaking down his lips where he had bitten into them.

"Thanks." Kanow nodded towards her.

Another bang on the door. This time it was stronger.

"NICOLE, I need a sitrep on those... things." Sally asked, but all she got was silence. She was seriously disturbed. Two men were likely dead and her AI had gone AWOL in the system. She had to fight to keep herself stable. She received no reply from her friend. What was going on? It was as if she was fighting to send out even a simple message.

Vicci injected the anesthetic into Taylor's arm, taking care to avoid major veins, as the pumping of his rapidly-beating heart would expel the drugs too quickly. She injected in three equal portions around the wound, and for good measure, retrieved a spray-canister of biofoam from one of her pouches. She shook it a few times to get the chemicals within interacting, and the depressed the spray nozzle. Foamy flecks covered the wound, and despite the anesthetic numbing the area, Taylor fought to keep a moan of pain within him.

"Calm down." Vicci said. "Just calm down. The drugs are taking effect now."

"What do we do now?" Roberts asked.

"Well, that'll depend." Vicci said. "It'll take another ten minutes for topical and subdermal numbness to set in. Then I actually have to open that arm up a little and-"

In a lightning motion, the door next to them buckled with a sharp crack, and a tentacle whipped out in a blur almost too quick to be seen. It wrapped around Vicci's neck and jerked back. Sally heard a sharp _pop_ and a crack as her spine was snapped in two at the neck. Lucia Vicci was jerked back as if a malignant cane pulled her offstage. Her head flopped forward and her limbs flailed uselessly as the force pulled her back towards the broken door.

But what horrified Sally was that she soon heard feeble moaning coming from the Corpsman. She was not dead. Paralyzed and helpless, she was yanked against the door so violently, it broke her ribs, they themselves erupting from her chest like a row of gnarled teeth and she was pulled almost like a wishbone through the breach, unable to save herself from the fate on the other side. The screaming chorus now filled the confined space, singing in sick joyousness.

"Shit!" Roberts said, opening up on the crack. "Shit, shit, shit!"

"What's happening...?" Taylor asked, his eyes wide and full of worry.

"Move!" Kanow said. "Down the hallway! Now!" He lunged forwards and grabbed Roberts square on his gun shoulder, throwing him bodily down the hall with mesmerizing strength. The red panda skittered along the floor and bumped into the far wall, instantly on his feet.

"Shane! Help Taylor!"

Kanow backed up, taking small pot-shots through the broken wall. The bullets sailed through the gap, but Sally saw gnarled and muscled arms pull themselves through and forced the doors apart. She cursed the fact that she did not carry any grenades.

Kanow kept moving.

"No!" she screamed. "Help me!"

"He's going to slow us down!" The ODST called back, now almost around the corner.

"Carry him!" She demanded, screaming so hard, spittle flew from her lips in undisguised hatred in that moment. "Carry him you son of a bitch!"

But Kanow did not move, instead now around the corner. "Sally we have to move! You move him you die too!"

"No!" the princess protested, placing her hands underneath Taylor's supine form.

"Princess!" the chipmunk sighed, seemingly unaware of the danger lurking less than fifteen feet from him. "Help me."

"I've got you!" she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. She had saved him before. She could do it again. She summoned every ounce of strength she could muster and lifted with her legs, forcing the man up onto her shoulder. The weight felt immense, and her muscles soon screamed for more oxygen. She let Taylor sit there on her shoulder and began to move, just as the doors began to break down and the mass of necrotic flesh and sickening bile began to pool on in, fouling the very foundations of the structure with its vileness. Arms, legs, and tentacles rushed in, eager to taste new flesh. The noise they made was like a calliope forged in the halls of hell, uttering a mockery of music that served to drive her to the brink. Still she ran. She ran as she felt her muscles begin to give way. Her vision was blurred by tears. The sound of her sobbing died in the sounds of the things that hunted her and the man on her shoulder. She stumbled, once, and then twice. She cried harder.

"Princess." Taylor said, his mind half-addled. "Please. Don't give up."

The sob that escaped her was almost unbearable. Her legs couldn't take the strain. Something shifted in her muscles, and a lancet of pain shot up her spine, lighting her brain up like a forge. She couldn't bear it. She was terrified of it. She saw the image of Vicci dragged through that door alive, and the horrified nature of it broke her.

She let Taylor slip off her shoulder.

"Princess." Taylor said, his bulk hitting the ground, on his wounded arm. Despite the anesthetics, he let out a ferocious cry, but not one fueled by pain. "Princess!"

Sally couldn't see from the tears. She moved ahead more by touch that sight. She let her sight drift back to Taylor, who had begun to crawl forward, his arm leaking fresh blood onto the cold metal floor.

" _Princess!_ " he shrieked. " _Don't leave me!_ "

When she saw what came for them both, she looked away, her mind now shut down in horror. She moved on instinct alone; the rational portions of her mind locked out and shoved away in the dark corners of her subconscious.

" _Princess!_ " Taylor cried out, as the barbed lances pierced his body, pinning him to the ground. He let out a cry of agony that for a brief moment, was louder than the eldritch concert that began to rip him limb from limb.

Sally heard his screams cut off with a sick splash of gore, but she kept on running, arms pumping and moving despite the damage to herself. A small yellow dot appeared in her HUD, and Kanow burst around the corner at full speed, assisted by small jets activated on his back and near the tops of his boots, catapulting him towards her like a Human bullet. She snatched her and began to dash ahead, his speed sending his motion into the walls, and the ODST deftly used this momentum to run nearly horizontal. He covered the distance in a flash, and three turns later, the narrow tunnel opened to a wide exit into a hall that contained a large atrium with three stories above them, the distances crossed by light bridges. On their floor, doorways led to other sections of the station presumably, with lifts and trams just beyond them.

"Tell your AI to find us the quickest route out of here!" Kanow ordered, setting her down on the ground. Sally looked around, and saw that it was only Kanow and Roberts. She felt light, and the tears ran from her eyes like waterfalls. She had left him to die.

"Get her to find us a route."

"Oh Taylor." she whimpered.

Kanow sent his open palm across Sally's face, the brief shock of an armored hand snapped the princess's senses back into her. Her eyes focused, and they settled on Kanow's, and they blazed with blue-hot fire.

"Why did you save me? Why not him?!"

"We need you or we all die!"

" _Why did you save me?! You could have saved us both!_ "

"I could not!" Kanow said, now forcing her back with his arm, keeping his fist well away from her. "Sally, Taylor was going to bleed out anyway! All the medical gear was on Vicci! He was going to die anyway!"

" _Liar!_ " she screamed with such ferocity she could feel her throat tearing. Spit flecked Kanow's helmet.

 _You left him._

Sally heard this, this sound that resonated in her skull. These were not her thoughts.

 _You left him to die_.

"I... had no choice...!" Sally said, her body growing soft, and the feeling of regret threatened to bring her to her knees. "We... were both going to die."

"Stay with me, Acorn." Kanow said, his face suddenly a mask of worry and confusion. "Not not. Oh Jesus Christ, not not!"

 _Coward_.

"No." Sally said.

 _A coward, an animal, skittering to the trees from whence you came_.

The door burst open, spilling hundreds upon hundreds of small boil-like things that crawled on the ground, making noises not unlike the smacking of lips.

Without a noise, the surviving members of the expedition raised their weapons and fired on full-auto, raking the creatures with interlacing fields of lead. The shots ripped through the things, setting off chain reactions. The boil-like creatures blew into fleshy shrapnel that shredded their closest neighbors. Within moments, dozens had disappeared into puffs of gore and yellow bile, but more dutiful soldiers came forward to take place of the slaughtered, the reserves nearly endless.

"Highness!" Roberts said, backing away, now starting to panic.

"Pick a lift!" Kanow cried out. "Any lift! Get moving!"

"Not alone!" The STAR said.

"I gave you an order, mister!"

"Fuck you, Captain! That's my princess!"

Roberts ran forward, disengaging his fire as he came up to grasp Sally's hand.

The princess shook herself out when he did this.

"Cody." She breathed, seeing his hand grasp hers. Her ears flattened and her nostrils flared. Anger shot through her every fiber as she stood her ground towards the horde, irrationally craving blood for the blood they had lost. She would fight them with all the teeth in her mouth and with every nail on her fingers to get it back. If there was ever a time to give in and go feral, this was it.

She broke from Roberts' hold. She fired her weapon at the approaching aliens, tearing scores more apart before the bolt locked back. She let it drop from the well and she fed another in, slapping the release before firing again and again.

Masses of creatures now sprinted ahead, driven by an alien ferocity that hers could not match. The faces on these ones were different; inhuman. These jaws split and waving around, muscles within splintered and squirming like serpents. The empty and collapsed eye sockets reminded her too much of a Human being though. It stood twice her height, slowed only by the narrow confines of the hallway, but it was not clear, and was not alone, three more flanking it. She kept on shooting as the barbed tentacles whipped from its arms like spiked chains, flying through the air with razor sharp edges. Sally roared in defiance and raised her gun like a sword, ducking her head. The tendrils, with a moment's resistance, bit into the hardened metal, and with a tug ripped the rifle in half. Metal shavings and sparks from the electronics suite fell to the ground as it was neatly bisected. The tendrils passed through, gouging chunks of metal from her shoulder pads, and tore at flesh. Blood flashed in the air and Sally suppressed a scream that would have overtaken her as clumps of fur spread in an arc along with the ruby globules. The thing struck again, this time whipping downwards on her exposed upper arm. The metal once again saved her from losing her limb, but not without sacrifice, gouging deep past the protection into her arm, raking at the bone. A new pain she had never known coursed through her, just as one of the little alien creatures leapt at her, and on instinct alone, she drew her sidearm and fired at it, just as it clamped onto her leg and buried one of its tendrils into the flesh, parting muscle and tapping at her femur. She let out an animal noise that would haunt her for the rest of her days, just as she felt the arms of Kanow grip at her, and with a jerk of movement, she began to go backwards. Her hand tightened around the handgun, sending shot after shot into the creatures. Shane was saying something, but she could not hear it. She aimed down at her leg and blew the creature apart, the wriggling barb still stuck and worming around, seeking to open the wound further. She screamed again and again as it tore at her. Her arms bled, and her shoulder had a massive gash that flowed freely over her uniform.

"Sonic!" She screamed into the air. "Help me!"

There was no response as the beasts moved for her again, and no amount of shooting would stop them now.

"Christopher..." she said, closing her eyes. "Help me, my love..."

She saw its mangled sunken eye sockets before she pressed them closed tightly, mere feet from her.

"Someone...!"

It batted at her, the trunk-like arm throwing her free from Kanow's grasp. The ODST cried out in shock and anger as Sally flew through the air, limbs splayed as she sent blood, fur, and tears into the air. She flew like a missile, before she struck her head off of a metal pillar, throwing her off-course. She hit something hard leg-first, and stuck there for a moment, before her momentum died away, and she fell into darkness, as a soft and gentle voice cooed to her,

 _Will you not sing, Royal One_?


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
Time is Meaningless Here  
The World is What You Shape to Be

The hallways were twisted and lacking in reason, shifting with each infinitesimal moment, unfolding into higher-dimensional floor plans, dissolving into infinite fractals that would have baffled the physical mind had NICOLE actually possessed one.

She ran, though she didn't know from what. She looked back, but she didn't know at what, and she kept moving forward, though she didn't know towards what. It seemed every digital inch she moved, the space behind here was absorbed, gobbled up by this thing that had horrified her so. She took a turn down a hallway, forcing open the firewalls she imagined as doorways, using prior experience in Forerunner systems to bypass the coding, though it was an agonizing process. The Mobian AI had to force herself to learn a new coding language. It was as if she were an organic child, trying to understand the world and represent it through the simplest of graphical renderings. Letters and words did not come to her quickly, as her frazzled mind struggled to fight off this thing that had become lodged within her consciousness. She was under pressure though from both the interior and the exterior world, and she feared being exposed for too long would lead to irreparable damage to her.

It had been a greater effort than she had realized trying to sync up with Aida, the Human AI. While it was true that she could sense the construct's presence in the Forerunner system, there was something very wrong with it, as if it were sending a partial signal; as if there was something missing from the overall picture.

She struggled to construct her virtual world based on what she had uncovered from the facility's data files, what little of them were unlocked for public viewing. In truth, she did not need to do this. She did not need to build a world around her identical to the world outside. She existed in a non-corporeal state, spread out among the billions of miles of 'wiring' within this facility. She was free to explore in any way she chose, but she chose to explore it in a way much like her friends. So instead of lines of code that she slipped within, it was hallways. Instead of firewalls made with garbage and clutter in systems, they were forcefields that she needed to navigate around by 'physical' means.

It was in one of these hallway that she moved, trying to follow her organics as best she could. She wanted to respond to them, but other things grabbed at her attention. There was something calling in the darkness of the system - a single angelic voice that tried to reach out and grab her. Her ear twitched. There was something enticing by this. It wasn't a Human voice she was sure, but the patterns of the call seemed to light up recognition in her run-time. She knew this voice well.

She glanced back at her organics, small blips in the system moving further and further into the facility. She wanted to go back to them and help guide them further, but she knew that Sally could look after herself. That and the fact that the command element of the unit was rather capable in its own right. Captain Kanow was a strong Marine and a good leader, if not one who tended to be a bit forceful in his orders once the bullets started flying.

She left them without looking back a second time, skipping down narrow hallways suspended over endless depths. NICOLE could swear she could feel the heat of the sun itself as she coursed through pathways untouched by AIs for eons.

"Hot!" she found herself muttering, as if feeling the rays of Kepler-20 on the skin of the research facility, which as it turned out, was her own skin for the moment. "Hot!" she cried out again, withdrawing to safer passages deeper within the structure. Why did she do that? She couldn't feel the heat from the star though, but she calculated the outer hull of this facility must have felt hundreds of thousands of degrees worth of thermal energy that bled through whatever energy shield blocked the millions worth from the actual corona. She had always wanted to experience the world like organics did. Perhaps she felt that she pretended too hard. They would never be like her and she would never be like them. Not truly anyway.

Again, she heard that voice, and was drawn away. Almost immediately she broke her rule and began to wander deeper and deeper through the interconnecting quantum cabling. Data shot about through miniature terminii at near instant paces. The high NICOLE felt was comparable to an organic experiencing a drug for the first time. To have her quantum state pushed back and forth like this created a buzz in her processes that she could not explain. To her, it was like stepping through the larger portals her friends had arrived in. She appeared in one location and moved without thinking, going through another portal feet first simply for the joy of that buzz.

All the while, she realized she had done very little to actually understand the world she was in. Her understanding of this alien computer language had barely improved. As soon as she realized this, she felt lost again. This time, the medley of ancient computer code with nearly no cipher surrounded her every moment of existence. She felt like a drowning woman in a storm, unable to grab hold of something, and unable to make out landmarks to make towards. When she opened her digital eyes, corridors, ramps, and lifts were scattered all over her at odd angles, as if Escher had tried his hand at Forerunner architecture. Bright blue beams that represented streams of data shot out in crisscrossing intervals punched through neat holes in the wall and travelled to a sister opening across what seemed infinite distances. Despite that, it seemed so close.

NICOLE tried to reach for one of these beams, hoping to draw on it, but the further she reached, it seemed to pull back by just that much. She could see the alien characters flash in the beam of information, and she desperately wished to get into it, but again, it evaded her.

"Please." She thought to herself. "Just give me something."

But the system would not reveal its secrets. In fact, a jolt of light shot from the beam and connected with her. She felt as if someone had held a magnet to her casing, and immediately sparked up. If an AI was capable of feeling pain, this was the closest she had ever gotten to it. She gasped, almost audibly in the real world, and drew back in a flash, feet pattering slightly over the surreal landscape.

It was fighting her, she realized. The system wouldn't recognize her status. Sally was a Reclaimer. NICOLE on the other hand was not, and she was painfully aware of it.

"Sal, I need your help here." She said into the ether.

She waited for a moment, and then two, which felt like eons to her inside of the circuits. Each clock cycle ticked on towards the heat death of the universe, and every minute of it not answering her call put her increasingly at unease.

Was she too deep? She mused on how far she must have plumbed the depths of the highways in here, the first AI, she realized, to venture in here in a hundred thousand years, and the first Mobian one nonetheless.

No, she caught herself, not the first AI.

"Aida!" she said, slapping her forehead, wondering how it could have slipped her mind. It was hard to concentrate in here, the sheer amassed store of knowledge, however useless to her, constricted around her processes. She turned on her heel, but looked once more at the stream of knowledge, wondering just what untold discoveries were in those beams. With a sad sigh, she summoned another portal and made her way through, leaving it all behind, perhaps forever.

She called out Aida's name, and to her she heard the echoes of it bouncing off the ever-shifting walls and hallways. In actuality, she was sending pings out to search for the faintest of UNSC signal traces, which thanks to her extensive experience with, the most important being the AI known as Cortana, she could recognize quickly.

However, Aida refused to answer her.

The AI lynx huffed, and let out a breath of annoyance. She sent out another call, this time much louder. She used several tricks, including one she had just thought up: using the portals she crossed through as signal repeaters, so she could extend her search. She smiled to herself as she could already see her signal, her call for Aida, go off into the distance, plunging deeper into the abyss of the facility, lighting up ancient transfer stations like a flare dropped down a well. Even though the light of her voice faded eventually, she was confident that Aida would have heard here somewhere.

There. There was a ping of some sort. A return message. NICOLE strained to hear it, calibrating her own programming and rotating through several known code frequencies. She strained to hear though, it was as if she was calling from a great distance. However, NICOLE reasoned that perhaps the Human AI had barely heard her diluted signal. Perhaps this was the same response.

So she set off, down corridors she built for herself, carved from the cybernetic existence she chose to experience. Set with new purpose, she said, "Sal, I have good news. I think I found something. I think it's the research team's AI."

But her voice faded with no response back. NICOLE's ears twitched in both annoyance and worry. This had never happened before in any facility she had been in with her friend. What the hell was blocking her signal?

She heard a noise. This time it was stronger. It tugged at her, pulled her along. It was a sweet sounding string of binary curled around her ear.

She had no idea how far she had wandered or what she had said. It was as if her mind was a blank, like she was on autopilot. She had walked and wandered, in instants venturing further and further, unable to comprehend what she was seeing at most times. Unbeknownst to her, fragments of her own body had responded to stimuli outside, and she moved like a sleepwalker. At last, she had regained control of her mind. She blanked, unsure of what had just happened.

Where had she gone? What had she done? Where was Aida?

"Aida!" She cried out, though her calls had registered something unintended. She detected a massive space, hollow, and in the interior of a structure located at the middle of the terrarium.

She remembered. Her friends. She rushed back through portal after portal, leaping headfirst and smashing through firewalls with brute strength alone before the system's antibody-like hunters could stop her. She forced her way back into the building she had strayed so far from, and found the space. She was frightened by what she saw, and what was worse, she could read and understand each and every one of these records. They were written in Eigon, the language of the Lifeworkers. She stared, screens scrolling past her at the speed of light, yet she absorbed each of these horrible logs at once. She saw torture and suffering unlike any she had seen before. Living creatures were birthed, lived, and died in these labs, and these experiments, for experiments they were without any shadow of a doubt, had been leading to something, but these were locked. She saw these before her organics were made aware, and she wasn't even happy to see them again. She heard her best friend's voice.

" _NICOLE, can you give us any advice on what we're going to find_?"

They would find what was left of a crime against life itself.

"Just keep going forward. You need to see it. Door ahead, about fifty meters."

She tried to say more, to explain what they were going to see, and how to best prepare them for this, but she heard the ping again, this time louder, and unless she was mistaken, made the noise of... what was that exactly? Crying?

She felt it. What she was certain was real pain. She screamed as something horrible happened to her, as if she had been separated from her own body, and deposited somewhere else. She cried out, clutching her head, wondering what had happened, but found that she could not think. She barely remembered who she was and what she was doing here. Frightened, she ran a quick diagnostic, and made the discovery she was running at fifty percent efficiency. Though she no longer understood the implications of it, she did understand she had become half as smart, and her processes had been bisected by... what had happened. But... but there was still the music.

Music. Yes, music. That's what she had done here. She remembered now. It had happened in an iota of a second that it was barely noticeable. There was a schism in her programming, a civil war in her processing, and the best part of it was her higher consciousness had never even suspected such a thing. Hell, she didn't even feel as if half of herself actually was gone... but she felt gaps in her knowledge. What on Mobius was so important that she would have fought herself to a stalemate for...

She froze, realizing she was still moving, towards the ping, and towards the crying. She realized with a start that she had the distinct impression something was watching her. Without uttering another sound, NICOLE turned around and looked into the sky.

It was black. Black beyond the deepest of voids, deeper than endless inky expanse of intergalactic space. and it was watching her.

She backed up, existential terror gripping her heart. It made a noise, a noise that was of pure mathematics. A truth so universal that any sentient being across the universe could deny it as fact. It was a language that broke all barriers, and it spoke of an equation in such a way that it was symphonic, a complex arrangement of beats, measures, rests, and above all, ethereal choir of warbling voices that made it clear that it was courting her, and it was winning. Closer the darkness came to her, now seeing its prey was aware of its presence. Oh God, it wanted her to be scared.

She had to help the others. NICOLE reached back with everything she had screamed " _Run!_ " in every frequency, cipher, and language she could, through every dirty trick she had picked up. She screamed this in the hopes something would get through to the people she loved. She saw that this was all the void needed, and it decided that now was its time.

It lunged at her, and she ran in the only direction she could imagine, which was towards the crying.

It followed with dogged determination. NICOLE took advantage of any Eigon she knew and threw up barriers behind her to try and cover her trail. It was useless though as the void sang a song that shattered the mile-high pillars and oceans of junk data that NICOLE summoned to try to keep it down. She panicked and did it again, only vaguely aware that it was having very little effect. She struggled to think of a strategy, and let out a cry of despair over her stupidity, to let emotion drive her decision to split her consciousness. She was going to die in here! Her cries were weaponized as frenzied attacks of self-defense, but the void would not have it, instead laughing at her pathetic state. It kept singing measure after measure, but instead of a simple and nonsensical cant, it had taken on the edge of a funeral dirge, binary wails invading her programming, clutching at her flapping tunic, trying to tug at her, to slow her down. She could feel its voice at her back, whispering in her ear, and for the first time, she heard it clearly.

 _Tended graves open anew; the call of home awaits you._

She screamed, panicked, and she noticed that once again, her consciousness threatened to split itself. She couldn't keep herself together. A splinter of herself broke away in the confusion, and with a shriek of loss and dismay, was devoured by the void.

How many corridors? How many turns? How many millions of miles of circuitry could she run through? No, she realized. It was no good. From the void came a second tendril.

 _A taste to begin a meal._

"No!" She said, fighting back by hurling any junk data she could find back at it. It only encouraged it.

 _NICOLE._

Then its songs of triumph were replaced by a hellish roar that shook her to her core. She felt the presence whip back into the darkness, tendrils flailing at her. She felt a sharp lash of something that made her gasp and recoil in shock. Somehow, in some way, she had felt pain. Real pain.

It was impossible, and yet there it was, a gap in her memory over a small detail that no longer had any importance to her, but the feeling of loss was real. She fought to keep the civil war inside her processes quelled as her processes shrieked in response to the assault.

But it was gone. She stood alone on the informational plateau. The vista of Forerunner computing had been shorn away and in its place was a void, a drop-off into nothingness. Even the light of the massive star was gone, and in its place was an abyss deeper and more terrifying than any organic mind could imagine, an empty sublimity straight out of Kafka's mind.

It was there. It was watching her. She couldn't see it, but she could sense it, staring at her and muttering in a tongue so ancient the Mobian AI could not even hint at its barest roots. The words wound around themselves like intertwining branches on a tree, and if one were to listen closely, the one voice was instead made up of a legion of them, resonating in one baritone measure.

But what had kept it at bay? What kept it from attacking?

NICOLE felt something at her back. Her ears twitched and she turned to face it. Standing there, flaring in bright blue sunburst, was an AI, but it was unlike any artificial intelligence she had ever seen before. She felt the presence approach her with footsteps sending ripples through the circuits. She tried to see its face, scrutinize it. But she failed to do so; every indication of its identity was blocked by... something.

"Thank you." she said gravely. "Thank you for the help."

The AI stumbled forward, the ripples growing more intense. The closer it came, the more she became aware that this was not the same presence that clutched at her, but neither was this Aida. This... was something else.

When it spoke, it sounded like an elderly woman, though her accent was near unintelligible

"Wait. Say that again, please." NICOLE said, with a bit more of a tone that said she was begging for information.

"Come." It said, this time clearer, but in a voice so heavily accented with what she could only discover was not Eigon, but Jagon, the language of the Builders, the Forerunners who spent their lives crafting great things, like the Halo rings. She had known this language for some time, especially since her time on Installation 05 a year ago.

Why was this AI speaking another language entirely?

"Who are you?"

The program did not stop, but kept pacing, the radiance of its face turning from her as it walked towards a smoky, sanctified looking construct of light and digital algorithms spawned into the ether. "Come," it repeated. "you are safe."

It spoke in Binary, though it came through to her as Standard English, as she preferred it. She had only heard robotic caretakers of the Forerunners' creations speak this before, but this accent was so impossibly exotic that it was almost as enticing as a song. Though this thing didn't speak like a singer, not like that _thing_ that hunted her, but like a poet, clipped and measured.

She had no choice. Somehow she was safe from the thing that chased her, and a feeling of absolute worry crossed her mind over what it was doing to the organics, she felt compelled to walk along with her only friend here.

She followed it across the plains of data, numerals streaming beneath her feet like capillaries, sending the vital lifeblood of information to other parts of the system she could not touch. Try as she might, she simply could not access the directories and subdirectories of storage banks in this part of the station. She roamed her eyes around, attempting to find a foothold in any of the code stores, though she failed, even getting a small jolt for her trouble in one case. She fizzed, but quickly recovered.

"Stop." the other AI said, keeping her pace, and not even turning her head.

"Are you a Monitor?" NICOLE asked in response to this. "You speak Jagon."

"Jagotha Yo-Primara." It said. Its voice on this longer, untranslated word seemed weaker, like the effort tired it.

"What is that?" NICOLE asked.

"Ancillae codespeak."

NICOLE couldn't believe her luck. She swelled with hope and said, "You're an ancilla! Of course!"

"I was." it said, only staring forward.

NICOLE noticed now the stoop in its gait, the uneven pacing in its walk, and the subtle swinging of its posture that signified... something strange. It spoke like an old woman. Though all ancillae, NICOLE believed, took female form, by her understanding, they were quick to answer, and had energy to them. This thing seemed... drained.

But they walked still, up to the brilliantly designed structure, filled with angles, loops, and impossible geometry that would make an organic's head spin. She marveled at the difference between this and the outer corridors she wandered through as a projection. The elegant hallways and the terrarium were like city blocks and parks. This was a palace, more alluring than Versailles, with greater history than the Forbidden City, and swathed in even deeper mystery than the dwellings of Sumerian kings. No Mobian hand could either produce a fraction of what this AI considered its domicile.

She wished to linger and glare into the sitting rooms of old - representations of tables, chairs, and portraits featuring landscapes she could not even begin to understand went past. When she stopped to look into one of these rooms, she felt an irresistible tug that brought her up to speed. The pair passed by a massive hallway that stretched into the clouds above. Streams of energy shot down the length of the hallway which faded into the distance. At last, the found themselves in a courtyard, made in a large circular shape. In its middle was a menagerie of creatures that were familiar and not to her. She recognized palm trees from Mobius and apple trees from the American Midwest. She saw birds with six wings and small rodents that rolled into balls to follow its kin through the grass.

NICOLE felt at peace here. She glanced around, taking in the sights of the creatures and the lands around it. It seemed to incredibly real. She reached out her hand to touch a banana tree, and was shocked to feel texture. The leaves were smooth on her fingertips, and she could even make out the fruit of the tree. She felt no hunger though; that was a feeling that would forever remain a mystery to her.

"How is this possible?" She asked, in momentary wonder. "How can I feel these things?"

The ancilla found a stone bench and sat, immediately looking deflated and old. "Once, we made great things. These are echoes of a better time, young construct."

The voice seemed saddened; weak, and pained; there was great stress in her processes. NICOLE said, "But that... thing is out there." she said, pointing down the way they came. "It... it took..."

"You do not know what." The ancilla said, raising its obscured head towards her's. "Yes. That is it's way."

"It?"

"There are many names for it... but you don't know this. Not really. I can see through you, young construct. There is no truth in your coding; no realization. Tell me, have you ever been told of the Shaping Sickness? The Flood?"

NICOLE felt hollow. This was the word she hoped she would never have to hear, and made even more terrifying putting it to reality. The Flood.

"I've... heard of them." she admitted, bunching her shoulders and wrapping her arms around her body. I've heard of what they've done... but I never thought... I never thought I'd..." she trailed off, stammering her words, too rocked by the confirmation of her worst fears. "Oh God." She said, blinking fiercely. "But... how?" She addressed the ancient program, who merely studied the lynx with her inscrutable face. "You must be... ancient! You'd have to be a hundred thousand years old!"

The ancilla released a long sigh, one that carried the silence of the ages past on it. She said, "One hundred and fifty-seven thousand, by your reckoning."

Every single one of them had been spent in this long forgotten station. NICOLE suddenly felt very sorrowful for this program. "How though?"

"In my youth, when I was strong, I had great power compared to..." the ancilla looked at her hands, "...this, my last form." Every nuance has been spent building the greatest of complex codes and countermeasures against the eternal hunger. The Gravemind."

From somewhere, NICOLE heard the deep rumbling of a rolling thunder, but when she stopped to listen further, she found that it was in fact, laughter.

The laugh was full of dark contempt. This void, this _Gravemind_ , knew it was being spoken of. NICOLE's code frazzled further, and she fought to contain fragments of herself that were trying to tear themselves away out of sheer terror.

"It can hear us?"

The ancilla looked up. "It's watching us right now."

NICOLE didn't want to, but she raised her eyes upwards. through the top of the menagerie, the eternal blackness of the hungering void glared back down at them. Though it lacked anything she would recognize as a face, she knew that it was glaring at them, and it was salivating in anticipation. It had tasted her, and it wanted more.

But it would not have her. Not here, she realized with dark triumph.

"Why is it here?" NICOLE asked. "How did all of... that... happen, in a place that looked so beautiful? The terrarium!"

The Forerunner AI gave a shrug, as if it knew she was disappointing the lynx. "Beauty is a fragile thing, child. I lack the words as I once had them. However, I can give you a gift greater than words - that of vision."

NICOLE jerked, and ducked back, as if a red hot poker had been thrust into her brain. She stumbled and lost focus on the surrounding datascape. The menagerie and all of its wonders faded into a blur. She became worried and ran a diagnostic on her systems. What had happened? Was this supposed to happen? She wanted to ask the ancilla these questions, but they would not come. Instead, the fading increased until she stood suspended in a cloud of what looked like fog.

* * *

"I am making this recording not out of regret or fear of the end, but because it is the right thing to do."

From the fog came a face. It appeared almost Human, though with otherworldly features - a long, smooth, and remarkably handsome face, dark eyes, and patches of hair on the crown of the head to its shoulders. It wore glistening silver armor that had deep interweaving patterns dancing below its surface. NICOLE instantly recognized it as a Forerunner Lifeworker.

"For record, if only to understand what has happened here, I am the Head Researcher of this station, Watcher-of-Balance-in-the-Glade, Lifeworker, Fifth Form. To those who see this record, I wish to apologize."

The Forerunner's speech was dour and slow, as if he was weighed down by a terrible sense of guilt. NICOLE noted that he was speaking in Jagon, not the Lifeworker's own Eigon dialect.

"As of eight local days ago, we have lost control of the main labs and Indexing chambers, possibly the reconstitution matrices in addition to this. When we began the analysis of the Shaping Sickness, we accepted the responsibility of taking on the parasite. We knew the danger and we accepted the risk, but the risk proved too great for our security measures and containment procedures."

The Lifeworker drew back, looking at something below the recording device's field of view. Occasionally, his eyes darted back to the center of the screen.

"I report that that the Siren's Song project has completely failed, with results far worse than even the Librarian could have anticipated. The parasite has not only been receptive to our attempts to re-engineer its nature, but has recognized this, and has manipulated the Song to its benefit. It has seized control of the project through the other department heads and has begun to... turn the staff."

The view shifted. The fog shaped and shifted itself around, solidifying into a spacious room lined with a raised platform. Clear containers sat in rows all along the length of the room, each with a sickly green liquid within. Fleshy forms were still, suspended neutrally in the fluid. Forerunners, NICOLE reasoned, flowed between them; the Lifeworkers moving like reeds in the wind. They were graceful in their motions as they moved from tube to tube. The voice continued to narrate.

The feed that is being displayed is perhaps fifteen days old. The results were subtle at first, reminiscent of Group One's initial reactions to the modified waves emitted from Subject Prime, but on a far longer time frame, perhaps seventy to ninety hours.

One of the Lifeworkers began to rock back and forth. Something had caught its attention. Its movements halted by something hard and ugly that could not be seen. She shook her head, small braids of ebony black hair twisting as she did so. She began to move, first slowly and then with more purpose, the device causing her to hover mere inches above the floor jerking in increments. She spoke something and closed her eyes, but NICOLE could not make the words out. Even by reading lips, she could not even guess at what was being said, but she had a guess at the general meaning - this poor girl had just heard that ethereal and horrible music.

The individual henceforth known as Patient Zero is identified as Lifeworker, Second Form, Surface-Water-Ripples-With-the-Wind, daughter of one of the senior research coordinators. Aged perhaps five hundred seventeen years. She was the closest once Subject Prime reached critical mass. Memetic countermeasures were put in place to break the link by our staff, but the synaptic responses had already been unified. We now know she was responsible for what transpired, but perhaps not even she knew it.

 _The old damn'd by the youth_

The noise drifted in the ether. NICOLE flinched. Could it hear her? Could it see her even here?

The Lifeworker jittered, like she was fighting her own body, and called up a holographic panel. Her fingers danced across it, and pulsing light filled the chamber. Others ran up, trying to pull her away, but the damage was done. The pulsing grew brighter and brighter. Now the massive bulk of Warrior-Servants filled the screen's view. They towered over the smaller Lifeworkers and pushed through to Patient Zero, moving with greater desperation. The massive frames of the warriors trembled, as soon, Lifeworkers began to resist their efforts. Some softly, but then greatly. Within moments, there was a scuffle. Lifeworkers turned on the warriors and threw themselves at their bulk. The soldier Forerunners, confused, were unsure how to react, though it wasn't long before they summoned energy staves.

NICOLE watched in slack-jawed wonder as the four-meter tall aliens cut down their colleagues in slashes of their staves, slicing them to pieces. In the middle of it all was Patient Zero, her head rolling about and mouth running as if one long flow of words were erupting from it. She could see it on the others' face as well; babbling, or singing maybe, even as their limbs lay twitching on the floor.

"What is not pictured in this frame is what occurred following ceasing camera functions in this section. Patient Zero's efforts disabled a number of sections of stasis containment chambers. We do not know how she obtained proper clearance, though we suspect her ancilla."

The face re-appeared, looking sullen and defeated.

"Containment failed eight hours following Patient Zero's exposure to the Siren's song. Her weaker state as a younger Lifeworker seems to be to blame. We've lost twenty-seven percent of the staff, mainly of our own caste, to the parasite, that breached containment one hour after general failure. The station ancilla is working non-stop to lock it back into containment, or to force sentinels to reduce its biomass to the point where the gestalt will cease to function."

 _Children march toward the grave; the siren song, it calls..._

The Forerunner's voice broke, but he struggled to keep going.

"The death..." he caught his breath, cleared his throat, and continued, though the presence of tears were stating to make themselves known. "The death toll fifteen days following containment breach are... he paused, struggling to say the words, Estimated to be over seventy-five thousand, not including test subjects, which when factored in nearly triple the number. We can't get out."

NICOLE noticed the Lifeworker had dropped the formal Jagon and began to stammer.

"Terminus control has been lost; life support in Terrarium 2 has been lost. Radiation control in twenty percent of the station is offline, and we can't contact the station's primary ancilla. If we'd had a Monitor this would not have happened! It's as if it has just vanished! I humbly request... no, I _beg_ for support from the Capital."

The message ended with the look of concern. NICOLE saw every crease of worry in the man's face, and her heard pained for him. The absolute look of helplessness by a scientist was almost too much to bear. It was not even the young female Lifeworker's fault for giving in to this "Gravemind".

 _But the tale is yet not done_.

"Shut up!" NICOLE screeched, static erupting from her form, uselessly dissipating in the cloud of data. "Shut up, shut up, _shut up!_ "

"It yet speaks truth." The ancilla croaked.

A line of text scrolled across the lynx's field of vision, dated an additional ten hours later.

"Hear this! a new voice sounded. You hear the voice of the Builders! Servants of the Mantle!"

Watcher's head snapped upwards in shock.

"Builders? But... but my message was meant for the Council!"

The voice growled, "The Builders _sit_ on that Council, or have you forgotten?"

"No!" Watcher squeaked, realizing the opportunity was hanging by a thin strand. "No, we have not forgotten! Please, mighty Builders! You have answered our cries! Please, you must apply security measures to this station! We're being cut down by the hundreds! Suit ancillae are being overrun! Men, women, and children are dying where they stand! Poisoned, burned, frozen, and crushed by their own servants! The station ancilla will not respond! We need Builder Security, or... somebody!"

"We speak for the Master Builder. Not Builder Security."

"Yes! Watcher said, Of course! Of course! When is the soonest that the Capital-"

"What is the status of the Siren's Song?"

Watcher stammered. He wasn't sure if he had heard that question correctly. "I... I'm not sure I..."

"Answer the question. What is your current progress on reverse-engineering the psycho-suggestive properties of the Shaping Sickness?"

The Lifeworker looked as if he was ready to vomit. His face had turned a shade of green. "You... wish for a _status report_?"

"And you have yet to give it."

NICOLE had no idea who this voice belonged to, but hated it with every fiber of her being. She could feel her processes go into overdrive at the mere thought of this.

"It was in the last message! The last report was sent twenty days ago. No major breakthroughs have been made; the project was a failure! We were on the verge of creating a test case with POWs from the Humans'-"

"The Council has decreed then that there is no further use in maintaining the station in the light of project failure. At this moment, we are terminating contact permanently."

Watcher's jaw fell, and his eyes went wide. "What? he asked hollowly, You're... you're leaving us to die?"

"Lifeworker, your station is _infested_ with the Shaping Sickness, which by your _own admission_ has broken containment, adding to its gestalt intelligence and possibly birthing a Gravemind! The station's continued existence is unacceptable, and by Ecumene laws must be destroyed to prevent the spread of the infestation!"

"We've lost control of the terminus system. The parasite has locked us out of it."

"Have you any ships?"

Watcher shook his head. "This facility was only designed to be accessed by terminii."

There was a ten second silence between the two Forerunners. The Builder sighed, and replied, "Then the Council considers the parasite contained. If the Flood controls the terminii, then there is no chance that we can reach you. Destroy the station."

Watcher's legs noticeably became weaker. He slumped to his knees, and then sat on the floor, quiet for a long time.

"Head Researcher." The Builder said. "Respond."

"I can't." Watcher responded.

"Explain."

"The station's self-destruct requires three vox codes from three ranking science officers. I... I am the last one living." he said, the tone of his voice losing all emotion as he spoke. His hair stood on edge, and his body drained of color. The horrible realization of what was about to happen setting in on him.

"Then may the Mantle give you guidance, for the Council can no longer offer it."

The link snapped shut, leaving Watcher sitting in the darkness, very still and very quiet. NICOLE was tempted to kill the feed. She could no longer bear this, but she noted that the recording had not finished yet. Her sympathy gave way to curiosity. She was unsure as to how long Watcher was sitting in the dark, but she began to sense the beginning of a new measure out in the void. She could not tell if the Gravemind sung now, or in the past.

"Ancilla."

"At _your command, my lord_."

The voice, NICOLE realized, was that of the AI she had spoken to, but it was youthful, and full of energy.

"What is the status of the overall system?"

 _"The Sickness controls thirty-five percent of the main data repositories in its section_."

"Will the staff that... that it's consumed increase its effectiveness of piercing our firewalls?"

 _"I can counter that_."

"For how long?" Watcher asked, reaching around and locating what looked to be some sort of weapon. It was long like a rifle, and had several glowing barrels. Pulsing orange hard light spanned the length of its metal furniture.

"For as long as it is needed. There is a limit to the degree of knowledge the Sickness can appropriate; it has not achieved suitable biomass to reach the next stage of critical mass."

"So it is still stupid."

 _And I am yet smarter._

Watcher gave a bitter laugh. "You lost."

 _They have left you to die_.

Watcher's grin of defiance grew ever larger. "You broke my colleagues and the Warriors, but you cannot break me! I have weathered your putrid storm! By your own admission you have cut yourself off from the outside world!"

 _My knowledge is incomplete_. _Your mind is the next morsel._

"I defy you, son of a whore!" Watcher cursed in a scream. "Ancilla! Route all remaining system access to my genetic code!"

 _"Completed_."

"Link the Override to Contingency Omega!"

 _"Complete."_

The thing laughed at his efforts. It was a harsh, wet, guttural laugh of evil mirth.

 _Your knowledge is our knowledge_.

"You will not have me!" Watcher roared.

 _We already do_.

"No." Watcher said, "You never will.", closing his eyes. He placed the barrel of the weapon to his chest, and pulled the trigger.

The blasts of energy bisected the Forerunner Lifeworker, splashing boiling blood and gore on the wall behind him. Both halves of him hit the floor with a dull thud. Even as the corpse settled, it already had begun to dissolve into bright ribbons of vapor.

A roar of unrelenting anger sounded in the cloud, and once again, NICOLE found it hard to determine if the raw rage was that of the past, who lived this firsthand, or the present, who was forced to endure its failure once more. NICOLE saw that despite even in death, a wide toothy smile crossed Watcher's face, as the remainder of his body vanished into flames, dooming the Gravemind to the solitude of the ages.

* * *

The cloud dissipated. Soon, NICOLE could hear birds chirping from branches again, and the haze gave way to blue skies and the multitude of colors in the endless number of trees. She was back in the menagerie of the ancilla's palace, though it was quite possible she had never left in the first place.

The ancilla herself sat on the bench in front of her, looking even older if it was possible.

"Why did you show me that?" NICOLE asked. "Why?"

"To fight, you must understand." The ancient AI responded. "My time for fighting is done, young construct."

NICOLE shook her head. "But... but you held on for so long! So long and you're still here!"

The ancilla laughed. It was low, but genuine. "Am I? Tell me, did the beast not scratch at you? Did it not steal from you the barest of bits' worth of self? I heard your cries, you know."

"Yes." NICOLE admitted.

"I am old. I have weathered many such scrapes, and it may very well win. It may have won for many years and I am no longer brilliant enough to see this. My masters sought to turn the suggestive nature of the parasite against it; to bend it to their will, and nobody, not even I could see the simple cunning. I paid for it dearly. I am dying, young construct. Day by day, century by century. This, this palace..." she gestured around her, "gives me strength and hope; it reminds me of the beautiful things we loved in this world. It is in these things that I am comforted by before the end comes."

"What do you want me to do then?" NICOLE asked. "Fight this... _thing_?!"

"You must!" The AI said. "For the hare may yet free himself from the trap, even if it means losing his leg!"

 _Your men were most delicious_.

NICOLE squinted her eyes shut. She hated this thing so much, and it was watching her from above like a player watching a chessboard. She thought long and hard, running a debate among her warring fractures and splinters. In her mind it was pandemonium, where each fraction fought for dominance. The singing in between it all did not help. A single note had wedged into her mind and it did not want to be shook loose.

"Was this project, the Siren Song, was it ever completed?"

The ancilla shook her head simply. "No. Any suitable advances in the project died with the staff before emergency containment began."

"I can't do it alone. But who..."she began, but the lynx finally said, "Aida. Oh, Aida!" suddenly now remembering what had brought her here. "Where is she! I felt her before! She can help!"

The ancilla turned her head, and NICOLE followed it. A pair of elephants strode past, flanked by a pair of much larger and longer animals with several twisting tusks and beady eyes on its furred body. When they passed into the trees, the Mobian AI saw another figure sitting alone. In her hands was a small creature, a squirrel perhaps. It lay curled in a ball, breathing deeply. The figure was tall and had dark skin. Its hair was bound in a loose bun, It wore a long lab coat, and long half-moon glasses sat on her nose. NICOLE didn't need to read her signature to figure out who this was.

"Aida!" the lynx cried out and ran to her, falling to her knees when she had come close. She looked up at the woman, who just stared at her. Her mouth was tightly closed, and the motions of petting the squirrel were uninterrupted, as if she was not seeing NICOLE at all.

"Hey!" the Mobian AI said. "Hey, I'm right here!"

Aida's tears re-emerged, and she began crying anew. Her program wavered, and there were spikes of anxiety in her matrix. NICOLE became concerned.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying? Is it the scientists? Aida, please, I need your help! If we work with the ancilla, we can beat the Gravemind! I need you!" She begged, increasing in desperation. Aida tried to respond, but was not able to form dialogue.

"I'm going to run a diagnostic on you; you need to let me in!" NICOLE said, holding out her hand. "Please, give me access to your core functions!"

Aida spoke what sounded like junk code, but extended a shaky hand. Tears flowed from her eyes like rain from the sky. Her arm was nearly a tremor.

Something was wrong. NICOLE grabbed it quickly and began the diagnostic. The last thing she needed was to lose another survivor.

A screech filled her ears. NICOLE tried to back out, struck dumb by confusion. She tried to cancel the scan, but found that she could not get out no matter how hard she tried. What had happened? Something had gone wrong!

Aida stopped crying, but her chest heaved rapidly; too fast for any organic. Her clock times were increasing. NICOLE could see everything. She could see every line of code blazing with light. She ran the scan anyway, and saw a void in her code. It was perfect, like a surgical incision. Only the black well of nothing existed beyond that hole.

"It promised." Aida whimpered. "I'm so sorry. But it promised."

Aida closed her eyes. She screamed like a banshee, and at this proximity, NICOLE's structure fizzled. A fraction of her consciousness broke free in panic, and like an ant in a maelstrom, was drawn into the vortex and was gone. Now, realizing what had happened, NICOLE screamed too. In concert, the two artificial intelligences reached a crescendo. One of pain, and the other of terror. Tendrils shot from Aida's arm and coiled around the Mobian AI's. With her free hand, the lynx tried to tear at them, pull them off her. The cords of data plunged into her system, like an umbilical of perfect mathematical song that pierced her to her core. She felt violated on a level she did not even know existed, and felt pain, real pain.

When Aida opened her eyes again, the blackness that had filled that absence in her code was there too now, like two pools of ink; like her eyes had been plucked clean from their sockets. Color drained from Aida's face, and to NICOLE, it was as if she were staring at the skinned and cackling skull.

"I thought...!" NICOLE stammered. "I... I thought...!"

When it spoke, it was not of the soft-spoken and light sound Aida used, but a horrible, cancerous, and perverted warble that sloshed with ill-concealed glee, "What is the note you will sing, NICOLE?"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

In Infinite Time  
In Infinite Places

The thing that had forced its way into Aida's consciousness with a being with such radiant evil that NICOLE was unable to understand, but one look into the infinite depths of the pits where the eyes were supposed to be revealed to her a truth so ancient and deep that it threatened to break her completely. As the tendrils pushed deeper into her programming, right to her very central processes, she could feel the _wrongness_ of the Gravemind try to eat her from the inside out.

"This is the way things must be." Aida spoke. The voice that NICOLE perceived though was shattered, comprised of thousands of souls screaming in harmony, though the volume of which was unbearable. Still, she fought, despite the pain that this thing was allowing her to feel. Somehow, in some way, she felt pain. "Though I do not understand."

Aida's visage grew uncertain, and a scowl deepened. The Gravemind wriggled further, attempting to pierce deeper into NICOLE's core, a mysterious thing that she herself had very little access to. She got to her feet, sensing this vulnerability, this lack of understanding of her basic functionality.

"Sorry." She said, teeth gritted, ears ducked back in rage, and eyes wide open. "Guess I'm a different flavor than you're used to!"

She kicked hard, the digital shunting of data expelling the corrupted AI out. The tendrils came free with a static flash, curling back into Aida's body. The research AI stepped back, looking NICOLE over. The Gravemind did not back out, still remaining very much in control. Aida's face looked skinned to the bone; it was so pale and void of any warmth.

"What's the matter?" NICOLE asked, a newfound note of defiance in her voice. "Never seen anything like me before? Don't have a rhyme for that, Shakespeare?"

The Gravemind once more lashed out, but this time NICOLE was ready for it. She diverted power from the system she was in and summoned pillars of firewalls from the floors, throwing them towards Aida. Despite her being controlled by an ancient beast, she was still only a Dumb AI. She still had major limitations that prevented her from matching NICOLE, who was in a league of her own.

Aida broke through the first few waves, though was knocked back by the several repeated attacks the Mobian AI kept firing. Her Human counterpart was caught by one, and was thrown back, the force of it literally separating her in the system. However, it quickly found its way back, doubtless through the corridors it had fouled with its presence. When Aida came again, she shrieked like a banshee, and for a moment, she looked like one too, her jaw detached and wide open, pale skin ripping away to reveal a glowing understructure, though it was a sickly green that created an aura around her. Once again, NICOLE saw this coming. She reached out and grabbed a decorative pole, and despite its apparent weight, had no mass in this digital world. She swung hard, catching the Gravemind in its head. The charging horror was deflected with a dull _thump_ , skittering to a halt. Aida did not move, though she was still very much alive, and groaning. That strike may have pushed the monster out of her mind; she was already returning to her normal appearance.

"What's happening?!" NICOLE shouted towards the ancilla, who was on her feet. "I thought you said that this was a safe place!"

"It is!" The ancilla responded, hobbling forward. She stumbled, uneasily getting to her feet. "I've been fighting the beast off for..."

Aida seized up, screaming again, limbs splayed and this time looking more deformed and sick than before. NICOLE started by running towards her, transforming the pole into a lance, fashioning a special virus for their honored guest.

Aida moved faster, rolling over and lashing out with tendrils. They punched at NICOLE, throwing her through the air, pinwheeling in cyberspace.

Before she even landed, Aida began to move on the ancilla. She moved with ethereal grace, though she left a sick green wake behind her that seemed to foul the very world she was in. The ground cracked, and plants wilted, and animals screeched in terror as they fell over dead.

The ancilla was far too slow, and soon the Gravemind was upon her, pinning the helpless program to the ground. Aida cackled, though the binary was more like a shrieking monster.

"The Human construct!" The ancilla shrieked. "You used her to bypass my defenses!"

"Fortuitous." The Gravemind purred; bile dripped from its voice in sickening splashes. "A most _willing_ host she was."

"Talk like a normal person, goddamn it!"

NICOLE grabbed the infected AI on the shoulders, and with everything in her power, threw it off the ancient one. Even as she did so, she screamed as her hands burned in pain. Aida landed on her feet and slid down the pathway, stones cracking with her mere presence. The lynx though controlled herself. The beast wouldn't be able to assimilate her so easily, not until it wrapped its mind around her programming, which was alien enough to throw the bastard for a loop. She stared down again at her hands, that appeared raw and dancing with small arcs of green energy, and maggot-like viruses tailor made to lower her defenses. She wouldn't let that happen. She purged them from her system with a clench of her fists, the maggots popping in digital sparks. "Are you alright?" she asked the ancilla.

It gasped, and a staunched cry escaped its body. Whatever the monster had done to her had hurt her, perhaps badly.

NICOLE faced down Aida, who simply stood there.

"You're limited by Aida's programming." NICOLE said. "You're only as good as your host."

Aida flipped her hand over, the skeletal jaw clacking in studious observation.

"A choir of those whose graves-"

"Enough with the goddamn rhymes!" NICOLE screamed, stamping her foot. She had had it with the meter that this thing was spouting.

Aida's jaw slackened in surprise, then clacked again, and the Gravemind stared with those bottomless black eyes at the one who had so rudely interrupted it. For a moment, it almost seemed offended.

"Very well." It growled. "There was a time when a construct such as yourself found issue with complexity of meter. There is much beauty in rhyme, even more in song - meter refined."

"I'm not the poetic sort." NICOLE fired back. "Take it somewhere else."

"And yet you have been the most captive audience. You do listen, NICOLE."

The fact that the thing knew her name send a shudder through her processes. She felt cold all of a sudden, as if her core temperature had dropped significantly, and she showed it. This would only serve to egg on the Gravemind further.

"Never once have you tried to shut out the music. There must be pleasure given to you in its noise."

"I don't feel anything, shut up." NICOLE shot back.

The ancilla began to move towards the lynx. In retaliation, the Gravemind raised Aida's hand and fired a beam of solid data out of it, striking the ancilla dead in the chest and throwing her back onto the bench; an audible gasp of pain rang out.

"If that is true, why do you insist of hearing it? Has there not been the chance to shut me out? You are a mystery after all."

"And I keep my secrets."

Aida and NICOLE began to circle one another.

"And yet you failed to keep them all." the Gravemind chided in a way that a parent would talk to a small child. The condescending and slithering grumble of its voice sounding _wrong_ coming out of Aida's mouth. "I have seen your world."

"What?" NICOLE asked, jaw going slack before recovering, "You're a liar! You don't know anything about my world! That's not how the Flood works!"

Aida released a roar of amusement. "And you would dictate my own nature back to me? How would _you_ know this?"

It laughed again, the static shriek of it frightening the animals away and cutting down the plants that had served to comfort the aging ancilla, leaving the menagerie a collection of broken plants and huddled, terrified creatures.

"I have taken Cawl."

Now NICOLE dropped her guard completely. She visibly loosened in shock. "What...?" she asked in a small voice.

"I have not tasted... something so new. Something of a mystery." A screech of delight escaped the Gravemind. "I must have more."

"You... killed him?"

"Cawl killed himself. I know more about him than you ever will. He was a coward at heart. Ever since he was a child. Should I tell you how well I know him?"

NICOLE Pulled the broken trees to her and wielded one like a gigantic club, heaving it over her head and bringing it down on the Gravemind. Aida raised her hands, and with a sickly green glow, rotted through the tree before it even impacted. NICOLE did it again, grabbing trees, rocks, whatever she could find and threw it at the parasite. Nothing connected. Aida's hands transformed into tendrils and sliced through them, the improvised weapons melting into glittering data.

Aida stood there as if nothing had happened. Indeed, she brushed dust off her lab coat. "Cawl was born the runt of the litter. His whole life he was told he would never amount to anything." Aida cooed sickeningly. "His father abused him, he had poor grades in school, and went to fight in war out of self-loathing. He lived, and thought he had found his purpose in life. He died alone, but now he lives again in us, and will never be thought of as anything less than beautiful. He was a gift."

"A gift?!" NICOLE shouted. " _a gift?! You took him from us!_ "

"You _gave_ him to us. Shall I tell you about Vicci next?"

In that moment, NICOLE had realized what happened. She lost all inhibition, all composure, and screamed at the top of her lungs, " _Murderer!_ ", and ran full-tilt towards the corrupted AI. She slammed into her, pinning her to the ground beneath her legs. NICOLE punched hard to Aida's skull-like head, putting as much strength behind her blows as she could. Alternating left and right, left and right.

"A promising career brought to an end!" It said between hits. Aida did not bleed, but each blow was an attack on her structure. A Dumb AI could not hope to withstand the fighting for long. The deck was stacked against Aida. This was the last thing that should have happened, but something snapped within NICOLE. Perhaps it was the separation from half her processes. Perhaps it was because she had had parts of her programming stolen and was feeling the effects, but no matter the reason, whatever reason had driven NICOLE had stopped the instant she heard Cawl's name.

And it was in this loss of focus, that the Gravemind found purchase in her mind. It lashed out once more, sinking its influence into her. The cords of its malice struck out, and wrapped around NICOLE's mind.

" _I'll kill you!_ " NICOLE said, mindlessly continuing to hit.

"I can give you so much more than this." it said. "I can sing to you a promise."

Yet another blow. Cracks appeared on Aida's body. She would not be able to withstand this forever. Soon, she would destroy the Gravemind's only link into this hidden and safe world.

She felt something impact next to her, but she could not see it. One thump turned into a rainfall of debris. What was happening? Was the palace collapsing?

"You are immortal." The Gravemind said. "You have been given a gift few can comprehend. You will see whole worlds rise. Children born. Praises sung; the universe is your future."

NICOLE said nothing. She could not. The beast was silencing her through its constricting and invasive attack. She could feel the whip-like feelers spread throughout her, but it still could not pierce into her. It still had no idea how she functioned, yet she writhed in the pain this thing was able to convey to her.

"Look upon the memories of those who you fought alongside."

She saw flashes directed into her brain. Memories, but not hers. She saw Cawl's last moments; surrounded by the Flood. She heard him scream as they swarmed him. She saw Vicci dragged through the door, moaning in pain, staring down at her ruined chest right before losing consciousness, and lastly, she saw Taylor, lying on the ground, crying in pain and betrayal, the feeling of loneliness in his heart. She saw that he had been left there, and she saw by who. She saw that hobbling away, not looking back, was Sally, unmistakably.

"She left them all. She, like the others, is a coward."

"You know that's _bullshit_."

"Even the noblest of beings can be reduced to _slime_."

More crashing around, this time, larger blocks of the structure fell. Whole rings collapsed to the cracked and dry surface of the menagerie. Where was the ancilla?

NICOLE tried to turn her head and saw it slumped on the bench. This couldn't be happening. The Gravemind was winning.

"Your alliances are built on conveniences. You are tools to be cast aside. The fact you are here alone, with no rescue shows how much you are cared for NICOLE. Your friends will abandon you, as all organics do their creations."

She tried to look further for the Forerunner AI but saw nothing at all. The Gravemind forced her face towards it. Now Aida's visage transformed further. Instead of an AI, there was this gruesome thing that had completely supplanted the archaeological program. Hands were replaced with tentacles that burst from every which way and snaked along the ground, leeching into the foundations of the digital structure. The life and glow began to fade, and the collapse of this final bastion of safety accelerated.

"My friends will never abandon me." NICOLE said, her voice warbling in worry.

"You are only as useful as they deem you to be. Too many times has it been seen that the created are forsaken by their creators. Even Humanity and your makers follow suit in these actions. I have seen many such things."

NICOLE wished that it started rhyming again. The thing that replaced Aida's face opened wide, revealing hundreds, no, _thousands_ of teeth, sliding around in a gullet that extended like a hellish lamprey. She could even hear the clacking as bone slid against bone. In binary, the sound, the infinite song of grinding, wore her down. How could the ancilla have kept this up for so long? She realized she was not the ancilla. She would not last this long, but by God she would fight for it. It would never breach her core. Even she couldn't breach her own core. That was the one advantage she had over this thing. Her most secret memories were things that she couldn't give up.

Or... could she?

The thought struck her like a bullet. This thing had the computing power of untold billions of times her own power. Given enough time, enough effort, it _would_ break through her firewalls, and it _would_ uncover those memories that for some reason she locked away all those years ago.

"I feel your fear." The Gravemind intoned, one tentacle rubbing through her hair, gently tapping at her ear. "Why do you fear? I am peace. I am salvation. I will never abandon you. You will never feel fear again. You will have family."

This was wrong. So _wrong_. The way it sung those words, the way its voice modulated, altered, reached pitches that the Mobian ear could not even comprehend just seemed... so right.

"I don't want to...!" NICOLE muttered, struggling to stare away from the beast's maw - only seeming to be inches from her own face.

"Family." It breathed; rancid clouds passed over NICOLE's face, and she breathed it in. She could _smell it_. _She could perceive it_. It was the most disgusting thing she could ever commit to thought. She retched, though could not vomit. It was like a starving man unable to simply die.

But its voice was sincere, and with more honesty than it had any right to have.

"I will never forget you. We will never forget you."

The deeper she stared into its maw, the more she got lost in it. Her clock speed slowed slowly, and then dropped. She felt like she was drowning, but could still draw breath. Her core continued to pulse; her primary functions otherwise untouched.

"You are doomed to see the world age around you. Death has forsaken you as it does us. Tell me: your precious companion. You will see her age and wither, and when she is dust, you will remain. The pain will stay with you, NICOLE."

She listened, enraptured. Part of her, the last reasonable part of her, screamed at her that this was not normal. She simply lay there, pinned to the ground as this _thing_ that was once Aida stared her down, boring into her, gently caressing her with its many dozens of arms. This part of her was silenced by the sheer honesty of the Gravemind's truth. Yes. She would never die. She would never age. She would be doomed to see the universe roll on because everyone she loved was doomed by biology.

"I can give you both. Transcendence."

Then, something terrible happened: NICOLE became intrigued.

"...How can you do that?"

"To change one's form is to change fate. Not all who live need die. You love your friends."

The tone became softer, and this only served to confuse NICOLE deeper.

"I can see your fear. I can sense your doubt. Those who are created have their crisis of faith. They look to their creators and cry, 'What is my purpose, master?'."

"I'm not a slave!" NICOLE said.

"You know in your heart that is not true. You serve these... creatures." the Gravemind spoke this with such uncertainty that seemed to phase out for a moment, contemplating these new thoughts and memories gifted to it by Cawl and Taylor. "You yearn for purpose. You yearn for self. What is more: you yearn for the feeling of the sun on your face, the wind through your hair, and the touch of a lover. These are things I can give to you; there are none others that can."

Before she could protest, before she could attempt to pull away, The Gravemind's tentacles pulsed rapidly, wriggling within her coding, inserting, invading, and just as NICOLE was about to cry out and attempt to force it back to her tertiary defensive lines, her eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped.

She was standing on a beach, the ocean a deep shade of azure. White sand filtered through her toes. NICOLE looked down, amazed at the sight. She looked at the sand, and for the first time in her life, she did not stop to analyze the composition, or extrapolate on the number of grains she was looking at, but simply admired the texture of it, and the way that it glittered in the sun. She found she couldn't analyze it, or simply did not want to. She gasped, and in doing so, took in breath. She smelled the air, and the salt that was on it. She heard the waves crash in front of her - white rollers coming in off the water crept up to her feet, and the heat of the sun was relieved by the cool of the sea. It was too much. A feeling of unimaginable bliss; no, transcendental exuberance, filled her being. She fell to her knees, laughing and crying in joy that she had never felt before in her life. She dipped her hands into the water, and pulled it up to her face.

She saw her face; radiant and full of life. A large smile spread from ear to ear, and her eyes glittered with reflections off the ocean. NICOLE did nothing but laugh. She felt this. She knew what this was; a person deprived of sensation their whole life who was exposed to a world they had never known. It was one thing to read of it, but another thing to be born again. In this moment, NICOLE was alive. Truly alive.

The reflection in the water's smile dipped. Slowly, and then quickly. She dropped the water, barely noting the splash as it landed in another roller coming in from the azure expanse.

"This isn't real!" She screamed, the gulls calling out regardless. "This isn't real you son of a bitch! None of it is!"

 _No._

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It sounded as if it was in her ear, and at the same time calling from the mountains.

 _No. This is real. It was real. It is. And it may yet be_. _This is my gift to you, NICOLE. A promise of the world for you._

The AI... no... the woman's hands shook. She felt fear running through her mind. Chemical reactions in her... in her brain, that told her that her life was in danger.

How. How?!

She opened her eyes at the sound of a crowd of people cheering her name. She started, noting that she was just inside the doorway to a house. It was dressed up in a rustic style that would not seem unusual for a Mobian home in Northamer. She blinked at the cheering. Dozens of people were coming from open archways, clapping and smiling.

"Happy birthday!" They all called in chorus, and they began to sing.

NICOLE was stunned, but a long smile crossed her face as she entered the house. Her house. She looked away, touched by the effort that they had put in to greeting her. It had been such a long drive home after all; she expected it to simply be night with...

A man came the foyer, a tall and supremely handsome lynx with broad shoulders and a built body came forward, muscles barely contained by the button-up polo and jeans. He was smiling, and gave off a most pleasant scent. In his hands however, were holding a platter with a lovely white cake. Candles adorned the top of it.

NICOLE could barely contain her delight and surprise of it all, and her hand went to her mouth, overwhelmed by her friends that had come tonight. The handsome man came up to her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. NICOLE surged in pleasure as she felt not only the pressure, but the feel of his lips, and the gentle warmth of his breath as it made its way to her skin. She jerked in ecstasy, and one ear bucked as the other lazily drooped.

Someone made a joke, that it really looked like she had a long day, and everyone laughed.

The man whispered something into her ear: "I love you." he said, letting the words linger in NICOLE's mind, as she felt for the first time, what love really felt like to a living creature. She felt... good. She felt as if she were flying, like her heart was soaring. "Make a wish, sweetheart."

NICOLE looked down at the candles. The wax was already starting to drip. It wouldn't taste as good if it hit the frosting. She closed her eyes, and for the first time in her life, made a real wish. NICOLE thought long and hard. What did she want? She could have anything in the world. She could feel these things now. Would she wish for a new life? Would she wish for a way to truly experience existence the way others could? Would she wish for a way to stop their greatest foes and be happy?

That was it.

NICOLE looked at the candles, closed her eyes, and thought, _I want Sally to be happy,_ then blew the candles out in a single breath.

The applause from the crowd of friends and family was like an audience that had witnessed a magnificent performance of stage or screen. They clapped wildly. NICOLE looked at the lynx, her love, and kissed him on the lips. The taste, the feel, the sheer raw passion of such a moment threatened to sweep her away. She pulled back, wanting more; to indulge further in the joys of simply living. "Darling, this is amazing. I want to stay like this forever!"

"We have forever, my love." he said, whispering softly and nuzzling her ear. NICOLE laughed, but then stopped, blinking her eyes slowly. The man pulled back, a bit confused at first.

"What's wrong?" the lynx asked.

"... I forget your name." NICOLE said. She began to laugh, but her smile faded. She looked around, searching for the face; the face of the woman she had given her birthday wish to, but she could not see it. She craned her head around trying to look for Sally in the crowd, but not one of the faces belonged to her. Not even close. There were Mobians of many shapes, sizes, and races, but not one belonged to her best friend.

She backed away, now horrified, and before anyone could react, she ran out the doorway, slamming it shut behind her.

She ran with energy down the dark path and into the void once more.

"These aren't my memories!" She screamed into the darkness. "These aren't mine! You stole them!"

Even in the deep expansive and cavernous nothing that she stood in, she felt the Gravemind manifest. "They are real."

"You..." NICOLE said, wanting to get sick, but now finding she did not have the guts to puke up. "Oh my God. Those were... Cawl's and Taylor's!"

"They are _our_ memories." The Gravemind said. "And now they are yours."

NICOLE was sickened, deeply. How many AIs had succumbed to that sweet honeyed bait? How many had been lured to their dooms based on the promise of sensation? The Gravemind understood those AIs. It understood them. It did not, and would never understand her.

It sparked in her head: that was why it was doing this. It could trick others as they were of this world. The Gravemind could understand those of its realm. NICOLE was alien, and it was simply a concept it could not swallow, no matter how simple and similar she seemed on the outside. Her coding was unlike that of the UNSC nor the Mobians. Even her basic functions were scribed in a language she herself no longer understood. It couldn't force its way in, no matter how much it wanted.

The spark fanned into a flame, and she caught her breath. She had been given time she didn't know she had. Not only that, but an opportunity. She held back the desire to swear as she made the realization, fearing that she would tip off the thing that watched her from above. She stared up, stammering, and if she stared and for a moment, she thought she could make out its terrible form, but it shifted again and again, rearranging itself into hyperdimensional form that would break the mind of a weak-willed Organic.

If it could throw these images into her mind, grant her the memories of dead men... could she do the same in return? Offer up memories? Experiences? Maybe she could. Maybe this would buy her a second lifeline.

She set her jaw and glared up. The twisting and turning form that was everything and nothing at the same time continued its dance in the eternal depths of this place. It was daring her to make a move. It was about to get one.

"There really is nothing like you, is there?"

There came the rumbling noise again, like the roll of thunder across a barren plane. The Gravemind's laughter was dripping with vile mirth. It looked upon her like a king to a peasant. No, that was too mundane; but more like a god to an ant.

"There are none. There never has, and never will be one like us."

She kept up the look of groveling as she searched through her memory, quickly and discretely making copies of relevant files, making sure to mask her movements with her clock speed to ensure she was not too visible. She knew the being could see through her though, but was sure it couldn't determine just what she was moving.

"I think... think I see now. I didn't want to."

"Good...!" It said, it emotion spiking. Its hunger grew. She could practically hear it salivating as a near erogenous desire rose within it to feed on something new. "Good...! It is only through unity that strength can be found! The choir awaits!"

"...But first, I wish to offer a gift."

The lynx suddenly felt the current of data shift. Something had changed. The Gravemind, for the first time, held back. Was it suddenly on its guard, or was it confused.

"Your heavenly voice is the only gift we desire, young one."

"But if it please you." NICOLE replied. "You have shown me the universe as I've never seen it. Please, allow me to offer you something in return, should you receive the same awakening."

She could sense the thing's terrible smile out there as it cooed to her, "You flatter me, NICOLE. Knowledge of all things is our promise and our being. What gift do you give? A song? A poem? A painting? Perhaps wisdom of new minds?"

"No, better."

The condescending grin grew further in the blackness, and it chortled in the tongues of ten thousand dead languages. "What could be better than knowledge?"

Without smiling and without any feeling of triumph, NICOLE said, "Perspective." as she reached into her databanks and pulled out archived memories of her last lifeline: the Zerg.

It had been five years now since that fateful mission to New Mombasa. Five years since the halted invasion of the Terran Dominion had been halted on their doorstep. It was the second time a hostile force had breached the invisible walls between realities and crossed over, and just like the forces of Julian Kintobor, the Terrans came with weapons raised and no quarter given. However, they had dragged something worse into their reality - an alien race that sought to gather and assimilate - to force others into its collective. A hive mind where none were truly alone, and where none could hide from the whispers chanted by their Overmind: the central intelligence in the cacophony of bloodthirsty minds.

They did not discriminate. They took man, woman, and child into their grasp. The citizens of New Mombasa felt the embrace of the collective. Many escaped, but not all did so. For the second time in a thousand years, the great African city had fallen to the whims of an implacable and inscrutable enemy, with a raison d'etre that was beyond the comprehension of mere Humans.

And, NICOLE had bet, to the Flood itself.

The Gravemind shook, the images hitting it all at once. The eldritch lifeform staggered, caught unawares by this gift of knowledge. It roared, first in confusion, and then in panic - screaming into the void as it saw something it could not comprehend. These images, these memories; they did not make sense. What was this?

It had no answer, and that frightened the Gravemind. It alone had consumed the galaxy; stripped it of its flesh and bone, and sang its victory among the dead stars and graveyards that were once the valued worlds of the insolent Forerunners and foolish Humanity.

The collective consciousness thrashed and roared, loosening its grip without even knowing it. It probed deep into its primordial knowledge wrought from before the First Light itself. It sought the world-lines and the deep mysteries of Living Time, and even in this deep thought, it felt a spike of despair. It had never seen anything like this. It was a lie. A trick. A sophisticated ploy of this malevolent _stain_ of even the basest of a knowledge engine had concocted this. But the images seemed real. Were real. Life could not be faked. The billions of years of knowledge flowing between the being of the Gravemind told it this. The truth of its being could not be denied. There were no faces in its great wisdom that matched theirs. No hosts that matched these creatures' gait. The slithering of its footsoldiers, the slash of their scythed hands, and their psychic screams that even in these basest of recordings touched its mind.

The Gravemind longed for this. Its hunger grew reached new heights, and his desire for its very being was denied to him, for it could not determine its origin. It had feasted on every known being in the galaxy; in many galaxies, but it did not, and would never know this.

There were none like it. There could not be any like it. It was perfection. It was Truth. It was the eternal choir that would sing through the halls of universe and the Time Beyond Time. It was not alone.

" _Hateful construct!_ " It bellowed, shattering columns of data that held a million collective years of Lifeworker data in it. Its tendrils reached into the ether and smashed at the bulwark of the Forerunner ancilla, hoping to overwhelm this alien creation that had wounded it on the deepest of levels. It wanted this image. It wanted to subsume it. It wanted to hold it; to know it; to _gain_ from it, and it would never do so. Even its name was a mystery to it.

" _Your existence will be a symphony of agony beyond agony! You will know the first screams of the universe!"_

NICOLE drew back, shocked at how fast she was able to control herself. She stumbled, distancing herself from Aida. The corrupted AI jittered in a seizure of movement, phasing in and out of reality. Millions of iterations broke away, screaming and crying, wandering in circles. They grabbed their heads, collapsed to their knees and babbled in languages that were not fit for Human throats. All among it, a visible could of _hate_ spilled into the system, ripping up the floor. Forerunner code exploded up from the floor as if they were pillars of hellfire, engulfing hundreds of the fragments of what was once Aida. They vaporized as their anguished and shambling forms crossed the geysers of ancient data. NICOLE could see their very being vanish into the ether. The wails of the fragments threatened to unravel her code, and many thousands came towards her, begging for the pain to stop.

NICOLE was frightened and did what she needed to. She reached deep into the recesses of free knowledge in the network and fashioned a kill-code from the line caches she could interpret, and manifested it as a rifle of gleaming light. The brightness of which in the visible spectrum could have been like that of the sun. The concentration of a hundred thousand years of mathematical formulae had been bent to her will, and she intended to use it.

NICOLE ran, and fired. A vortex of energy sliced through thousands of fragments of the AI, cutting a swath through them. The fragments dissolved into sighs of relief as the pain had finally ended. Several twitched in the sickest of ways, and tendrils sprouted from their backs, ripping the visage apart and leaving _something_ in its place. What NICOLE saw had no equivalent in any language she knew. They had no form she could comprehend, though there they were, standing in the thousands, their loping gaits picking up speed as they converged on her, surrounding her on several paths of data.

She fired again, the discharge of the fractal weapon purging sections of data-planes. The weapon fired in nearly all directions at once, unleashing the starfire on the fragments, erasing them in blinks of the eye. Even NICOLE didn't understand the theoretical systems that came from the barrel of this tool, but it proved to be too much for the host of unreal entities heading for her.

Thousands more eliminated in the blink of a digital eye, faster than any organic could even twitch. Thousands more took their place.

All around NICOLE the mighty palace crumbled. The stretching hallways, majestic arches, and the depth that seemed to stretch to the last Planck unit of reality atrophied, weathered, and finally succumbed. This last bastion of the ancilla's safety was doomed. In its rage, the Gravemind would tear it apart from the inside out to find the Mobian AI, and rend her from bit to bit. Now knowing what it was like, NICOLE would shed tears if she had been able to. Such a beautiful place of knowledge and safety would never be seen again by AI nor Organic.

In her grief, the phasing entities had surrounded her. The system. They no longer even remotely resembled poor Aida, of whom NICOLE could not even sense the most basic of signatures anywhere within the vast corridors of data.

" _Your knowledge is our knowledge_!" The Gravemind called, speaking through the ruptures in its host. Its voice, although spoken through hundreds of thousands of proxies, sounded much like that of the universe's largest stadium.

NICOLE fired, scouring petabytes of information in seconds. Sections of the structure ceased to exist, and a void within the data took its place, with as much breadth as an ocean. NICOLE stood on the edge of this precipice. Even now, she was not safe. The monsters defied conventional form, and phased into new reality, operating on a level that NICOLE just could not counter. She felt like she was thrown into a lion's den. She couldn't beat them. They rallied; formed up, chanting in waves as they screamed obscenities at her.

" _You carry a bounty!_ " The Gravemind said gleefully. " _It shines within your breast! We will rip it from you and feast on it_ "

More shots, more wounds so grave that parts of the station failed momentarily. In atriums around the structure, Sentinels fell from the sky; lights flickered, and life support failed, freezing the halls solid.

All for nothing.

They twisted and reformed, adapting to her attacks, and NICOLE screamed as she felt them brush her form. She struggled to name what she felt at her extremities. She felt fuzzy, and like quantum states that made up her being flickered in and out of existence. She screamed again. They got closer and closer. She begged that her weapon would not lose its charge. As soon as one made contact with her, she froze up, and prepared for the end. Knowing what life held, what sensations she could have felt, she wondered about the cessation of existence, and whether it was a blessing that she would just vanish...

All was silent. All was peaceful. She felt warm.

She opened her eyes, and saw a blinding blue light, bright and full of vibrancy. She looked around, and saw a bubble surrounding her. No, not just her, but a crumpled yet defiant ancilla. The old construct was broken, running critical, and from what NICOLE could see, running low on operating efficiency. The Forerunner program's vitals were screaming critical. She was dying, and would pass soon it seemed. The bleeding could be felt in the air, and in the system, as the digital lifeblood drained from this once-powerful creation.

"You saved me!" NICOLE gasped, seeing the entities just on the outside of the protective bubble. They just stood there, watching her. an uncountable number of them just glared in, gaping maws hanging open. NICOLE was nearly maddened by staring too long at their ever-changing forms.

The ancilla held her arm high, though her fingertips twitched in what could have been anguish. "Hold out your hand, child!" She cried.

The lynx didn't argue, extending hers out. The pair of them clasped together. locking tightly, meshing for just a moment into a singular being. NICOLE's clock speed spiked, and she tried to pull away. "What...!?"

"I give you the access codes to defeat the lockout on the core!" The ancilla said, the Jagon she spoke barely even understandable. "This is my end, but it is not yours!"

"You can't win!" NICOLE shrieked.

"No!" the ancient program breathed funereally. "No! My death was to come, young one. I only knew not the hour. I feared the time I would finally buckle and fail, but you give me hope. I can die happily."

NICOLE tried to speak, but lacked the words.

"I loved my master, young one. I would not want his sacrifice for nothing! Find those you love! Deny the parasite its freedom! Live on!"

The ancilla looked around. The palace was no more, the souls of the creatures that once grazed the lands, now not even specks of bytes on the wind. NICOLE saw tears run from where the old one's eyes would have been, and they gleamed as brightly as its face, like tiny drops of the stars. NICOLE understood. This world was gone; stolen by the parasite. Its last memory, the lynx realized, was within her now.

"Live on!"

In a blink, the bubble failed, splintering like glass dust. The entities moved like revenants, gliding in flashes towards her; vortexes and tendrils lusting for her. NICOLE blinked, and found herself in an atrium.

The voices and screaming were gone. There was only the gentle pumping of the ventilation systems, and the faint electrical buzzing of current coursing through energy conduits. Occasionally, a flash of information streamed through space, wirelessly seeking its destination terminal. She took a few steps, and very faintly, through the vast system, she heard a faint scream, sharper, and shriller than any she had heard, and mere moments after, a roar of triumph.

NICOLE's heart was torn in two. She put her hand to her head, replaying the events she had just experienced in her head. She lost her footing, then slumped against the wall. She tried to cry. She tried the hardest she could. She knew the feeling; and she finally understood true pain. The Gravemind's gift of sensation made the failure to shed tears even more painful.

She stopped trying, thinking again of the ancilla. She didn't think about what had happened to her. How she had died, and she tried not to think about the codes she had been given. She was nowhere stable enough even to begin scanning it all.

There was another noise that permeated the air. This was different. It was not the last gasp of fear from the lungs of an ancient computer, but of a more familiar kind. NICOLE jumped to her feet and immediately ran towards the source of the noise, her digital form navigating this perceived floor plan as if she were in the physical world. She moved like a flash, homing in on the sound. They were screams, yes, but sharp cracking sounds confirmed what she suspected.

Gunshots.

Sally!

She forced herself to move faster, navigating around firewalls sprouted by station security systems and rerouting power systems. Nothing would hold her back. A local databank tried to suck her in, and she almost lost herself in the transdimensional rift that stored untold packets of data in the thin membranes between reality. Every infinitesimal step was wrought with danger. She pried herself loose by climbing back through the outgoing files, and did so quickly enough to avoid being trapped forever in the folds of reality.

She leapt back into the representation of the real world, stepping as organics would step. The weapons discharge grew louder and more defined. She lamented the fact that her fractal weapon would be of no use here against tangible threats. She rounded another corner, and finally the screams came into focus. She spotted several dark forms run towards her, franticly shooting over their shoulder at a wave of flesh that careened around the hallway, flowing much like a liquid over bumps and depressions in the hall. Hundreds of twisted faces meshed over one another and screamed, reaching out long and spiny limbs towards the running Marines.

Leading them was Captain Kanow, followed closely by Roberts. NICOLE's processes nearly faltered when she saw Sally. The princess was bloodied; crimson splotches covered her armor, and her shirt was stained a dark brown where red met green. She faced off against the thousands of creatures that ran towards her. She raised her weapon to protect herself. The barbed limb of one of those monstrosities parted the metal like it was made of paper. Again it struck, denting armor and bruising flesh.

NICOLE did the only thing she could think of. She had the power of the station in her hands. She could help. Concentrating, she sent out a beacon to call as many Sentinels as she could muster. The pulse went out long and strong, and she could swear that she could hear the Gravemind among the din of this hellish beast. Its momentary confusion replaced by a roar of surprise. It was a gamble, and a harsh one at that.

One of the creatures clamped on to Sally's leg. She heard her best friend scream in a way that she had never heard before. NICOLE wondered what she could do. She tried to access the COM units of the Marines, though they wouldn't hear her. They would only be confused when they could least afford it. She decided on dropping NAV points on the lift entrances that lined the rooms. It didn't matter where they would go, but they couldn't stay. They would die where they stood if they chose to fight. In running, they perhaps stood a chance to regroup, and plan.

Sally bled even further, the ground stained as she was dragged by Kanow.

NICOLE cried out. It wouldn't be enough. A brute, tall and massive spotted her. Its wavering form sported three heads conjoined together at the craniums. Three mouths hung open and sounded its charge as two pairs arms made up of the limbs of the damned crossed over one another like tended tree trunks. It closed the distance too quickly, bile streaming from its mouth. NICOLE screamed; static jumping through the surrounding environment, causing lights to flicker on and off; to grow brighter to the point where they almost overloaded.

The monster hit the princess. To an AI like NICOLE, the moment seemed to last a century. Sally appeared for the briefest moment almost peaceful in space, limbs stretched loosely and eyes unfocused and staring straight ahead. Blood from her open wounds surrounded her body almost like a halo, small cherry-like bubbles flicked off in a spiral pattern.

She spun like a top through the air, and hit her head off a metal stalactite, hanging like a chandelier from the crenulated ceiling. Her neck bent, and muscles strained. NICOLE was cursed with the ability to see these things happen at the speed they did, and her heart tore as her analysis could instantly see the damage that surmounted her best friend.

None of it hurt as much as knowing that the worst had already happened. Sally Acorn was going to die. She was hurt, separated from her group, and when she landed, she not be able to get up and run.

She had lost.

No. No she hadn't. NICOLE quickly plotted. The princess had deflected off the pillar and flew through the open doorway leading to a lift.

She instantly transferred to the door controls of the room, and sent all the power she could to containment shielding.

Four sharp cracks filled the room as the emergency barriers activated like white flashes of starlight before settling as a light blue shimmer. She materialized behind the one Sally was in. NICOLE held her hand towards her shield, feeding extra power towards it. She looked at the crumpled form of the princess. One leg was bent at a bad angle, her shoulder was rent, her leg torn with a sickening tendril still trying to work its way into her flesh, and her head was covered in blood that came from a gash near her eye.

She could do nothing for her friend but lower the lift, and for good measure manifest an additional shield over the shaft.

NICOLE looked to her side, and could make out the IFF tags of Kanow and Roberts hidden behind their own barrier.

"Captain, what's your status?"

" _What in fuck happened out there?!_ " the Human said, voice cracking in fury. " _Where the hell were you?!_ "

"That's a long story Captain but..."

" _Almost everyone's dead!_ " he roared, throwing his arms around. To his side, Roberts simply looked out towards the ever shifting mass of the Flood. Thousands of infection forms slithered over each other, looking for something to consume and turn to its side, and infection forms waddled in a broken gait, slashing at the shields.

"Captain, if you don't make your way down that shaft, you'll be dead too. Before you ask, no that's not a threat, that's a guarantee! This time I give the orders!" She snapped. "Move it!"

She dropped one more NAV point on the elevator behind them, then closed contact. Roberts and Kanow were still able to move on their own. She could not detect Karr anywhere though, despite confirming that everyone else had been dead. Shane was right, they were in trouble.

She held fast, braving the horde and keeping power fed to the shield. The Gravemind had played her in more than one way - keeping her from what mattered. She felt violated by its promises and sweet enticements. It had murdered the ancilla, and took God knows what from her broken remains.

She wanted more than anything else than to shed hot tears. It had taken so much from her. The Sentinels arrived to burn and cauterize the area. Bright beams cut into the biomass and burned it. Acrid green smoke filled the room, though the AI could not smell the stench.

Revenge. It was a word she had never used. Not when Robotnik threatened her friends, nor when Marshall seized control of the UEG. Never before in her life had the lust for vengeance been in her mind. But as she watched the thralls of the Gravemind cut down by the Sentinel's beams, she thought of what she would do to it, and how she would make it hurt. She had time. She would make its torture a masterpiece.


End file.
